Probation Service caseload rose by 3% last year
The Probation Service’s annual report shows that it dealt with 17,686 offenders in the community last year – an increase of just over 3% compared with 2024.
The service is responsible for the supervision and management of people in the community who have offended.
It also engaged with 3,785 individuals in prisons – up from 3,521 a year earlier.
The number of referrals from the courts increased by 8% to 10,497, 81% of which were for males, while the service completed 13,864 probation reports during the year – up 4%.
Community-service reports down
Theft was the main offence that led to individuals were referred to the service, followed by assault and drug-related offences.
The number of reports considering community service was marginally lower than the previous year at 2,317, according to the report.
The service made 8,680 supervision orders during 2025 – up from 8,190 a year earlier.
The report also shows that the number of people convicted of a sexual offence who were supervised in the community over the year rose from 622 in 2024 to 709 last year.
Probation assistants
The service said that the 1,734 community-service orders it managed resulted in €3 million worth of unpaid work for communities.
Acting director Una Doyle said that the total number of staff at the service was 522 by the end of the year, after recruitment competitions led to 72 new staff joining.
Among those were several probation assistants, a role introduced in 2023 as part of a strategy to increase capacity and efficiency. By the end of the year, there were 51 probation assistants in the service.