Ireland scores high for trust in justice
Three-quarters of people in Ireland rate the independence of courts and judges as either very good or fairly good, according to EU figures.
This puts Ireland eighth of the 27 EU member states, according to the 2026 EU Justice Scoreboard published by the European Commission yesterday (4 June).
The report provides comparative data on the efficiency, quality, and independence of justice systems in the EU.
Across the EU, the scoreboard shows that citizens in 17 states and companies in 18 saw judicial independence as having improved or remained stable compared with last year.
Low clearance rate
The figures show, however, that Ireland’s was the least efficient justice system for resolving civil, commercial, and administrative court cases in 2024.
The figures show that Ireland had a clearance rate of just over 80% in 2024 for civil, commercial, and administrative cases – the lowest of the 25 states for which information was available.
A figure below 100% means that fewer cases are settled than are coming in.
The scoreboard shows that Ireland’s spending on the justice system increased in 2024, leaving it sixth in the EU for spending per inhabitant.
Digital technology
Ireland continued to rank lowest in the EU, however, for the number of judges per 100,000 inhabitants, despite a rise compared with 2023.
The figure for the number of lawyers was the eighth-highest in the EU.
While Ireland ranked in the top half of EU countries for the availability of online information about the justice system to the general public, it was fourth from bottom for procedural rules that allowed the use of digital technology in court.
Ireland is also relatively low (21st) in the rankings for the promotion of incentives for using ADR (alternative dispute resolution).
EU justice commissioner Michael McGrath described the scoreboard as “an essential tool” for strengthening justice systems and upholding the rule of law across the union.
The information in the scoreboard will feed into the European Commission's 2026 Rule of Law Report.