Spent convictions in Ireland: the seven-year rule explained

The Criminal Justice (Spent Convictions and Certain Disclosures) Act 2016 is the only law in Ireland that lets a conviction stop following you around. It is narrow. One conviction, seven years, a sentence of twelve months or less, and a list of exclusions. This guide sets out exactly what it does, what it does not do, and where things stood on reform in October 2026.

What "spent" means

A spent conviction is one you are treated, for most purposes, as never having had. Where a form, an employer or an insurer asks whether you have been convicted, you can answer as if the spent conviction did not exist, and the Act protects you from being treated less favourably for not disclosing it. The conviction is not erased: it stays on the Garda record, the Garda and the courts can still see it, and some roles still require you to disclose it. What changes is the duty to tell most other people.

The seven years and the effective date

A conviction becomes spent seven years after its effective date. The effective date depends on the sentence:

• A fine, a suspended sentence, a Probation Act conditional discharge or a bond: the date the sentence was imposed.
• Imprisonment or detention: the date the sentence was completed, including any period on temporary release.
• A community service order: the date the hours were completed.

For a fine imposed in October 2026, the conviction becomes spent in October 2033. For a four-month sentence that ended in March 2027, the date is March 2034. The date for your own conviction, from the sentence and the dates, is in the spent convictions tool.

The Act applies to convictions from before it commenced in 2016 as well as after, so an old conviction that meets the tests is already spent.

The qualifying sentences

A conviction can become spent only where the sentence was one of these:

• A fine.
• A community service order.
• A suspended sentence.
• Imprisonment or detention of twelve months or less.
• A Probation Act conditional discharge or a bond.

The twelve-month limit is the sentence imposed, not the time served, and a part-suspended sentence counts by its full length. A sentence of more than twelve months never becomes spent.

The one-conviction rule and the minor carve-outs

This is the rule that catches most people. Only one conviction can become spent under the Act. If you have two convictions that would each qualify, neither becomes spent, except where one or both fall into the minor categories:

• Minor motoring offences dealt with in the District Court.
• Minor public order offences dealt with in the District Court.

Convictions in those categories do not count towards the one-conviction limit, and each of them can become spent on its own. In practice this means:

• Two drink-driving convictions, both in the District Court: both can become spent.
• A section 4 intoxication conviction and a speeding conviction: both can become spent.
• A drink-driving conviction and a section 2 assault conviction: the drink-driving conviction, as a minor motoring matter, does not count towards the limit, so the assault conviction can become spent as your one conviction, and the motoring conviction becomes spent on its own.
• A theft conviction and a section 2 assault conviction: neither is in a carve-out, so neither becomes spent.

Several convictions arising from the same incident and dealt with on the same day are treated as one conviction for the purposes of the limit.

What never becomes spent

• Sexual offences.
• Convictions in the Central Criminal Court.
• Any sentence of more than twelve months' imprisonment or detention.

What was never a conviction

Some outcomes do not need the Act because they were never convictions: a Probation Act section 1(1) dismissal, an Adult Caution, a fixed charge paid in time, and a drink-driving fixed penalty notice paid in time. They leave a Garda record, but nothing to become spent. See criminal record in Ireland for what each leaves.

Where disclosure is still required

A spent conviction must still be disclosed:

• To the Garda and the Courts Service, in any later investigation or prosecution.
• In applications for the licences and roles the Act lists, which include certain public offices, the legal and financial professions, and licences such as firearms and private security.
• Where a specific law requires it.

Two things sit outside the Act altogether. Garda vetting for work with children and vulnerable people has its own rule in section 14A of the National Vetting Bureau Acts 2012 to 2016: a single conviction more than seven years old, committed at 18 or over, with the sentence completed and the offence not on the excluded schedule, is not disclosed, and everything else is. A police certificate for a visa or work abroad discloses all convictions, spent or not, and foreign immigration law asks its own questions. Both are explained in Garda vetting, police certificates and travel.

Spent convictions and insurance

An insurer's proposal form that asks about convictions is asking about unspent convictions, and a spent one need not be disclosed. Until it is spent, it must be, and a false answer can void the policy. For a drink-driving conviction that means seven years of disclosure at renewal; see car insurance after a drink-driving conviction.

Spent convictions and employment

The Act protects you at work. Where a question about convictions is put to you by an employer, a prospective employer or anyone else outside the listed roles, it is treated as a question about unspent convictions, and you are not obliged to mention a spent one. A failure to disclose a spent conviction is not a lawful ground for refusing you a job, dismissing you or treating you less favourably under a contract. The protection does not reach the roles and licences the Act lists, or Garda vetting, which has its own rule. What an employer may ask, and what a conviction that is not yet spent can mean for a job you already hold, is on EmploymentWise: a conviction and your job.

The 2026 position on reform

The 2016 Act was criticised from the day it passed as the narrowest regime in these islands: one conviction, twelve months, seven years for everything. The Criminal Justice (Rehabilitative Periods) Bill 2018, a Private Member's Bill, would have widened it with shorter periods for lesser sentences and more than one conviction; it stalled at Second Stage. The Department of Justice has since consulted on broadening the regime, and the Irish Penal Reform Trust has campaigned for it. By October 2026 no Government Bill had been published, and the law on this page is the law in force. Any change is tracked on changes.

How the sentences on this page arise

Each qualifying sentence has its own guide: fines and paying by instalments, community service, a suspended sentence, and the Probation Act. The full range of District Court outcomes, with their 2025 counts, is in what the District Court can do.

Where this leaves you

Use the spent convictions tool to work out the date your conviction becomes spent, whether the one-conviction rule or a minor carve-out applies, and what you must still disclose in the meantime. If you may qualify for legal aid, ask the judge for it at your first appearance; the tests are on legal aid. A solicitor can tell you, before you plead, which outcomes would qualify and which would not: how to find one. If a conviction is weighing on you, support lists who to talk to.