Almost 2,000 offences in the Gardaí’s North Western Region which takes in Cavan and Monaghan were committed last year by suspected offenders while on bail. New figures show how gardaí are being faced with having to investigate a continued upward trend in the number of crimes being committed by suspects who are currently before the courts.
The figures were released to Cavan-Monaghan Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy on foot of a parliamentary question to Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan. Last year, the local Garda division, which takes in Cavan and Monaghan together with Louth, saw 1,951 offences being recorded and investigated by gardaí.
Those figures represent an increase on the 1,854 total which were documented 12 months previously. Deputy Carthy pointed out that the number of crimes committed across the country where suspects are on bail rose from 26,000 in 2016 to over 40,000 in 2024, and called for a review of the operation of the bail laws.
During 2024, there was 4,146 arrests for where there was reasonable cause to suspect that theperson had breached or was in breach of a bail condition. The local TD says these figures show there is a significant problem in terms of the monitoring of bail conditions and holding those on bail to account for breaches of their bail conditions.
