There was a 22% increase in the number of drug driving cases before the courts in Waterford in 2025, according to new figures released to Fianna Fáil MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú from the Courts Service.
A total of 78 people were prosecuted for drug driving cases in Waterford across the first ten months of 2025, compared to 64 people throughout the whole of 2024.
The nationwide figure shows that a total of 2,050 people were prosecuted for these offences across Ireland from January to October last year. This is a jump of 37% from 2024, where 1,499 people were prosecuted throughout the whole year, and marks the highest ever level on record for drug driving prosecutions in Ireland’s district court system.
Ní Mhurchú has called for decisive action to be taken against the “escalating threat” of drug driving. She said: “We need an expanded roadside drug testing regime this Christmas period on our roads. We also need to consider policies whereby anyone convicted of drug driving is required to re-sit their driving test, or at minimum, complete a comprehensive driver re-education programme. They have to get the message that they are a danger to other innocent road users.”
The Ireland South MEP suggested deploying the same modified interlock technology that is currently used in cars to prevent convicted drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel, to detect drugs instead of alcohol in the vehicles of repeat offenders.
Ní Mhurchú stated that the cases that make it before the district court are just the “tip of the iceberg when it comes to drug driving,” adding that these measures are an “essential ramp up” in the fight against drug driving and to “restore confidence in road safety this festive season.”
Funded by the Court Reporting Scheme
Robyn Power
