After a steep rise in the past five years the latest figures from the Central Criminal Court show a levelling off in the number of cases.
Figures for 2000 show 126 cases were disposed of in that year, compared with 127 in 1999. This is despite the fact that one case, the Catherine Nevin trial, took up several weeks and there were a number of retrials.
The total of cases received by the court was 156, a reduction of seven on the previous year. There were 159 in 1998, compared to 100 in 1997 and 73 in 1996.
The number of cases being disposed of also rose dramatically between 1997 and 1998, with 70 cases before the court in 1997 and 106 in 1998.
The most dramatic increase has been in rapes coming before the courts, with murder cases tending to remain fairly constant.
In 1996, 25 murders were received and 23 tried. In 1999, 33 murders were received and 29 tried. However, in 2000, 42 murder cases were received, and 32 tried.
In the same period the number of rape cases received more than doubled, from 48 in 1996 to 130 in 1999. This fell to 113 in 2000. The number of cases dealt with went up from 48 in 1996 to 94 last year, with a peak of 98 in 1999.