The Courts Service has rejected widespread reports on the low-rate of drink driving convictions as "inaccurate and simply wrong".

Last week, figures were released claiming only 40% of motorists before the district courts on drink driving charges were convicted.

However the Courts Service says the average figure for convictions each year is between 85 and 88%.

In a statement, the Courts Service has said recent reports of low conviction rates "has been inaccurate" and that this inaccuracy is "simply due to the extrapolation of conviction rates from the wrong set of figures," which has "distorted the actual outcomes in cases heard, and in no way reflects the conviction rates in the District Courts." 

The error is due to an error made in reading the figures, they say. which was "by comparing convictions to summonses requested, printed and issued - and then comparing them to the UK figures - which relate to cases actually heard and finalised - not the number of summonses in the system at one stage or another."

The problem lies in the information provided in response to a parliamentary question, which only asked for the total summonses processed and the list of orders made. It did not offer context on how many cases were heard and ruled on.

In the two years before July 31st 2015, the District Courts finalised and made decisions in 11,237 drink driving cases, with convictions in 9,714. A conviction rate of 86.44%

The Courts Service has released figures showing conviction rates in several areas:

• Dublin 83%
• Cork 93%
• Navan 87%
• Athlone 97.73%