Home      Login

Abstract: 

In 2006, Ireland enacted legislation specifically providing for the use of electronic monitoring—and indeed, encouraging its use as an alternative to imprisonment. Yet EM never really got off the ground there. Its adoption was tentative and limited, especially when compared with Ireland’s neighbors, including England and Wales, where EM has been embraced enthusiastically. This paper explains the history and underlying causes of the cautious implementation of Ireland’s electronic monitoring program. The author was the Director of the Irish Probation Service for seven years up to his retirement at the end of 2019. Since 2021, EM in Ireland has been on ‘pause’ despite remaining on the statute books. The paper also considers aspects of the country’s criminal justice system that have contributed to the slow adoption of EM, and possible future developments given its history to date.

Keywords: Irish Criminal Justice System; The Irish Probation Service; The Irish Prison Service; EM in Ireland—Legislation and Practice

Affiliations:  1: Trinity College, Dublin.