Some 122 charges were heard against 22 young people at the Children's Court in Dublin yesterday.
The majority of these, heard by Judge Mary Collins, were for stealing a car or for allowing oneself to be carried in a stolen car, under Section 112 of the Road Traffic Act.
"That would be the average business here each day, five days a week," a clerk said. The other most common offence was larceny, she said.
The small courtroom, more intimate than those hearing adult cases, holds two long tables placed side by side. The judge and two clerks sit on one side, the solicitor on the other, with the defendant and arresting garda at either end.
In the course of an hour at Court 56 yesterday morning seven cases were heard. Just one resulted in a custodial remand.
A boy of about 16, arrested in Inchicore on Tuesday at the rear of a house and carrying a tool box, was remanded to St Patrick's Institution for a week.
His solicitor, Ms Sarah Molloy, asked that he receive medical attention for heroin addiction.
Three were remanded on bail, and bench warrants were issued in the cases of two who failed to turn up.
Parents accompanied just two of the young alleged offenders.
Figures from the court for 2002 have not yet been published, although to the end of September last year some 1,978 charges were heard for road traffic offences, compared with 2,570 for all of 2001.
Some 867 bench warrants were issued, compared with 684 in all of 2001.
In 2001 some 12,629 charges were heard at the court, although according to clerks it has got "a lot busier" since then.
One source said that at any one time an average of 2,000 cases were in the system, whether they had been adjourned or were awaiting a hearing.
In 2001, 133 children's cases were struck out as there was no place to send them.
A spokesman for the Court Services said judges were tending not to strike cases out due to the lack of availability of detention places, "as it is pointless and they are instead trying to do something".
An increasing number of cases are therefore being adjourned for later hearings in the hope that something positive may emerge in the meantime.
To the end of September last year 2,744 cases against children were adjourned, with just 23 struck out for lack of a place to send a child.
Some 13 children were sent to industrial schools in the first nine months of last year compared with 22 the year before, while six were sent to reformatory schools, compared with 19 in 2001. The low numbers, a spokesman said, were due to the fact that there were very few beds available.
