DISTRICT courts in West Cork have channelled €133,249 in Poor Box donations through the justice system over the past five years, with the majority in 2024 and 2025 linked to drug offences.

Figures obtained under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by The Southern Star show how court decisions can go beyond the courtroom, redirecting funds into charitable work at local and national level.

The majority of payments between 2020 and 2025 were made to St Vincent de Paul (23), while other regular charities included the family resource centres in Skibbereen and Bandon, and addiction treatment services Taber Lodge and Coolmine.

Other beneficiaries included West Cork Women Against Violence Project, the RNLI and Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. The FOI data was recorded by the Clonakilty Court Office, which holds information on Poor Box payments for all of West Cork’s district courts in Clonakilty, Bandon, Bantry, Skibbereen and Macroom.

Types of crimes

The FOI also uncovered figures for the type of crimes behind Court Poor Box payments between January 1st and December 31st 2025. The majority of payments to charitable causes came from drugs-related cases. The data for 2024 showed 12 instances where payments were made for possession of drugs. Four of those were recorded in Bandon, one in Bantry, two in Clonakilty, five in Macroom and none in Skibbereen.

Possession of drugs was behind 32 of the Poor Box payments in 2025 (12 in Bandon, one in Bantry, five in Clonakilty, 14 in Macroom and none in Skibbereen). In 2024, one case for the sale and supply of drugs was registered in Bandon, none in the other courts.

In 2025, two sale and supply of drugs payments were made to the Poor Box in Macroom, none in the other courts. Skibbereen registered one case for ‘the cultivation of cannabis plants or opium poppy’ last year.

Parking and public order

Parking and road traffic offences were also recorded, 14 in total (three in Bandon, three in Clonakilty, seven in Macroom, one in Skibbereen). Last year the figure for the same type of offences was seven (six in Bandon, one in Clonakilty).

The payments for parking and road traffic offences were made as a result of unpaid parking tickets, parking on double-yellow lines, non-display of tax discs, no NCT or not having the relevant documents.

Six public order payments also featured in the court records in 2024 (one in Bandon, one in Bantry, one in Clonakilty, three in Macroom, one in Skibbereen) and eight in 2025 (three in Bandon, one in Bantry, three in Clonakilty, one in Macroom). The cases mostly relate to threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour in a public place and intoxication in a public place,

Less common offences that show up in the Courts Service’s Poor Box figures for 2024 and 2025 are money laundering, wildlife offences, fishery offences, theft, and possession of weapons.

How it works

The Court Poor Box was set up before the foundation of the Irish State in 1922 and is generally used in criminal prosecutions in the District Court.

The judge can order the person charged with an offence to make a donation to the Court Poor Box. This means that instead of being convicted and facing prison or a fine, the defendant donates a sum of money to a charity decided by the judge.

There have been numerous calls to reform the Poor Box system over the years and critics have argued that it allows wealthier people to get off the hook and avoid conviction, while people from lower economic backgrounds face jail.

Nationally, charities received more than €1.5m last year through the Court Poor Box – up around 60% compared to 2023. This is an indicator that judges are increasingly making use of the Poor Box for certain types of offences.

The presiding judge plays the central role in deciding the final destination of the money and how it is paid out.

West Cork’s judges

In West Cork decisions on the payments would have been made by Judge James McNulty up until September 2024. Judge Joanne Carroll was appointed in March 2025 and a number of judges were assigned temporarily in the time between the change over from Judge McNulty to Judge Carroll.

In its FOI decision letter to The Southern Star, the Courts Service explained that information about Poor Box payments is captured through two separate systems which do not link directly on topics like the Poor Box.

One system, the Criminal Case Tracking system (CCTS), records court offences and outcomes in the District Court and District Court Appeals Courts. A separate finance system records moneys paid in and out of court.

Although the two systems are balanced for day-to-day transfers, the FOI data shows that Poor Box information cannot be compiled in a single, fully connected statistic.

The Courts Service said there were a number of reasons for this: a judge may adjourn a case to allow a defendant to pay directly to a charity, and if the matter is later struck out, the payment may not follow the same Poor Box pathway; there may be timing differences between when a payment is directed and when it is paid out; and a judge may direct funds into the Poor Box but only later decide how they will be distributed.

Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme.