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80 Drug-Driving Cases Before Naas Court So Far This Year Amid Calls For Tougher Penalties

Tuesday, 16 December 2025 08:57

By Martin Osborne - Head Of News

The figures come as 170 people have died on Irish roads so far in 2025, seven more than at the same point last year.

Drug-driving cases before the courts have risen sharply this year, with 2,050 people before the courts nationally between January and October 2025 - a 37 per cent increase on the full-year figure for 2024.

Figures from the Irish Courts Service, supplied to Ireland South MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, show this is the highest level of drug-driving district court proceedings on record, continuing an upward trend since 2020.

In Kildare, 80 drug-driving cases were dealt with at the Naas District Court in the first ten months of this year, compared with 99 cases during all of 2024.

Nationally, prosecutions have increased from 390 cases in 2020 to more than two thousand already this year.

Several district court areas outside Kildare recorded large percentage increases, including Mullingar, Longford and Trim.

MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú is calling for an expanded roadside drug-testing operation over the Christmas period, along with tougher post-conviction measures for drug-driving offences.

The figures come as 170 people have died on Irish roads so far in 2025, seven more than at the same point last year.

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