The criminal law in Ireland gives the Gardaí certain powers to detain you in their custody after you have been arrested. The purpose of detaining you after your arrest is twofold:
It is important to understand that the powers of detention depend on the offence for which you have been arrested.
If you are charged and brought before the District Court, you may be either released on bail or detained in custody while waiting for your trial. This is called being on remand.
If you are arrested for an offence which does not allow for your detention, then you must be charged with that offence and brought before a judge of the District Court as soon as possible. If you are arrested after 5pm on any evening and the District Court is sitting before noon the following day, it is acceptable to bring you before the District Court at the beginning of that sitting.
If, on the other hand, you are arrested for an offence which allows for your detention in a Garda station to assist with a Garda investigation, then you will normally be detained for the period allowed by law.
There are five main pieces of legislation that govern detention after arrest:
These five pieces of legislation recognise the concept of detention after arrest by the Gardaí to assist with their investigations. Tthe Gardaí must have reasonable grounds for believing your detention is necessary to properly investigate the offence.
See "Further information" below on the offences to which detention applies.
The maximum period of detention ranges from 24 hours to 7 days depending on which section of the legislation you are being detained under. In most cases, you can be initially detained for up to 6 hours on the authorisation of the member in charge of the Garda station. For offences under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939 your initial detention period can be up to 24 hours. To detain you under Section 42 of the Criminal Justce Act 1999 the Gardaí have to first obtain a warrant from the District Court authorising your arrest and initial detention. You can then be taken from the prison to a Garda station.
Generally, after your initial period of detention ends, up to two further detention periods can be authorised by a Garda of the rank of Superintendent or higher. Depending on the section of the law applying to your detention, the authorisation for a further extension may have to be given by a Garda of the rank of Chief Superintendent or higher.
Further periods of detention may be granted following application to the District or Circuit Court by a Garda of the rank of Chief Superintendent or higher. For Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939 application can be made to the District Court by the Superintendent.
The periods of detention applying under the various sections of legislation are given in the following table:
| Section 4 | Section 42 | Section 30 | Section 2 | Section 50 | |
| Initial period | 6 hours | 6 hours | 24 hours | 6 hours | 6 hours |
| First extension authorised by Superintendent | 6 hours | 6 hours | 24 hours (Note 1) |
18 hours (Note 1) |
18 hours |
Second extension authorised by Chief Superintendent |
12 hours | 12 hours | 24 hours | 24 hours | |
| First extension authorised by District or Circuit Court | 24 hours (Note 2) |
72 hours | 72 hours | ||
| Second extension authorised by District or Circuit Court | 48 hours | 48 hours | |||
| Total | 24 hours | 24 hours | 72 hours (3 days) |
168 hours (7 days) |
168 hours (7 days) |
Note 1: First extension must be authorised by a Garda Chief Superintendent (or higher rank).
Note 2: The extension is authorised by the District Court following application by a Garda Superintendent.
It may. If, during your detention, you are taken from the Garda station to a hospital or other suitable place for medical attention, any period of absence from the Garda station is not taken into account in the calculation of your detention.
Other periods may not be counted, depending on the section of legislation you are detained under. If you are detained under Section 4 or Section 42 and questioning is suspended for a period of time between midnight and 8am to allow you to rest, the time the questioning is suspended is not counted. If you are detained under Sections 4, 42 or 50 and you attend court in connection with an application relating to the lawfulness of your detention, the time you are absent from the Garda station is not counted
If your period of detention would end while you are at the venue where an application is being made by the Gardaí for a further detention period, it is considered not to end until the final decision of the court on the application.
The Criminal Justice Act 2011 (pdf) amended detention under Section 4 for certain arrestable offences to allow your detention to be suspended and for you to be released during the suspension. These offences include offences in the areas of banking and finance, company law, money laundering, fraud, corruption, competition, consumer protection and cybercrime.
Apart from detention under Section 30, the detention of suspects who are under 12 years of age is not allowed. If, however, the member in charge of the Garda station has reasonable grounds for believing that the suspect is not below the age of 12 years, this prohibition does not apply. It will be necessary for the member in charge to justify these grounds if it transpires subsequently that the suspect was in fact under 12 years of age. More information on the treatment of children in Garda custody is available here.
If the Gardaí no longer have any grounds for believing that your detention is necessary to properly investigate the offence or your detention period has expired, then you must be either charged with the offence or released from custody. If you are being charged with the offence you are brought before the court.
If you are detained under Section 42 and your detention is no longer required or it has expired, you are returned to prison without being charged.
There are a number of other instances where you may be detained by Gardaí. These could be described as detention for administrative purposes and don't require the authorisation of anybody other than the arresting Garda.
Examples of this are:
When you are brought to the District Court for the first time after you are charged, the court has two options:
When you are brought before the District Court for the second and subsequent times, the court has two options:
If you are unable to go to court due to illness, the court may remand you in custody in your absence.
If you have been remanded in custody and there is no sitting of the court on the remand date, you will be remanded in custody to the next sitting of a court in the same District Court District.
If you have been remanded on bail and there is no sitting of the court on the remand date, you will be remanded to the next sitting of a court in the same District Court Area.
If you are remanded in custody for a period of 4 days or less, the court may commit you to the custody of the Gardaí. This means that you are kept at a Garda station instead of in a prison.
Section 4 detention
Section 42 detention
Section 30 detention
Section 2 detention
Section 50 detention
A Section 4 detention applies to any offence for which an adult (who hasn't been previously convicted), may be punished by imprisonment for a term of five years or more. Most offences for which you can be arrested carry a penalty like this, so they come within the scope of Section 4.
Section 42 of the Criminal Justice Act 1999 allows the Gardaí to arrest a prisoner who is serving a sentence or awaiting trial. The detention must be in relation to an arrestable offence or offences other than the one for which you are in prison. (Note: an arrestable offence means an offence for which you could be punished by imprisonment for five years or more).
While Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 and Section 42 of the Criminal Justice Act 1999 cover detention in relation to a wide range of offences, Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939 only provides for a period of detention in relation to the following offences:
Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996 allows for you to be detained where the Gardaí believe you have committed a drug trafficking offence. A drug trafficking offence is:
Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act 2007 applies to detention in connection with the following offences: