Files on over 10,000 suspects in criminal cases were dealt with by the Director of Public Prosecutions last year, but he directed that no prosecution be taken in 35 per cent of cases.
The figures are published in the 2006 annual report of the DPP, James Hamilton, released today.
Of the 10,701 suspects that were the subject of the files forwarded to his office, the DPP directed that 3513 (33 per cent) be prosecuted on indictment (before the higher criminal courts). A total of 2,932 prosecutions (27 per cent) were directed for summary disposal by a judge in the lower courts.
The DPP said insufficient evidence was the reason for his decision not to direct prosecution in 2,948 of cases. He is not required to give detailed reasons in relation to his decision not to pursue prosecution in individual cases.
Some 162 (4 per cent) of the suspects who were the subject of the files were handled through the Garda's juvenile diversion programme.
Public interest was cited in 155 (4 per cent) of cases where no prosecution was pursued. A total of 50 cases (1 per cent) were not prosecuted on "sympathetic grounds". In a further 219 cases, there was no prosecution either due to undue delay or the expiry of a time limit in which a case could be taken.
In total, the DPP received 7,791 prosecution files in respect of 10,701 suspects and just 5 per cent of them, or 534, were still under consideration at the end of the year.
Of the 10,167 suspect cases disposed of, the DPP's office took decisions on more than half of them (52 per cent) within two weeks. A further 13 per cent where decided within two to four weeks, and 19 per cent of cases had a decision in a period of between four weeks and three months.
In relation to the outcomes of cases prosecuted in 2005, the last year for which final figures are available, almost 65 per cent of cases sent forward by the DPP for prosecution in the Circuit Criminal Court resulted in conviction.
Of the 2,890 sent forward, 70 people were convicted by a jury, while 1,800 suspects were convicted on a guilty plea. A further 68 defendants were acquitted by a jury, and 45 were acquitted on the direction of a judge. A total of 819 of the cases were still for hearing at the end of that year.
The greatest number of cases directed for prosecution in the Circuit Criminal Court in 2005 related to offences against property (1,018). Over 72 per cent of those sent forward for trial in such cases were convicted on a guilty plea.
The DPP said caution should be exercised in relation to his statistics in light of figures published separately by the Garda and the Courts Service.
Mr Hamilton said the figures were published based on his own office's categorisation systems and may in some cases not be in line with the classification systems of other organisations.