The judge gave video evidence with colleagues before the assembly on an initiative which he has pioneered and which he describes with beguiling modesty. “I would take a bit of pride in it, but it is a fairly simple idea,” he says.

In an interview with our security correspondent Cormac O’Keeffe published today on the IrishExaminer.com website and ePaper, and in print in the Irish Examiner, Judge Kelleher describes how he used discretionary powers to offer a deal to first offenders. Someone caught in possession of cannabis for personal use could come before the courts three times before they faced a possible jail term. For cocaine, it would happen on the first occasion.

Recognising that “we had a fierce problem with cocaine”, the judge’s “simple idea” was that those charged could pay €750 towards the Cork Local Drugs Task Force and receive a course of counselling. If they attended every session, and did all that was asked, no further action would be taken.

No criminal record would exist to complicate CVs, job applications, and attempts to improve the transgressor’s life through education.

With no wish to spare Judge Kelleher’s blushes, the results have been phenomenal. Between June 2019 and March 2023, which includes peak covid, 189 people were diverted from his court to the drugs programmes. Of these, 95% were males between the ages of 20 and 30 and in four out of five cases, cocaine was the drug of choice. 81% were employed and only 7% were students.

Crucially, the attendance record was 93%. One in 10 needed onward referral to specialist health services.

Judge Kelleher said none of the people who came before him under the scheme have returned with another charge.

Its success has encouraged other judges to consider implementing their own versions. President of the District Court, Judge Peter Kelly, said it should be replicated in cities and towns across Ireland.

However, the campaign against the relentless march of drug abuse demands constant vigilance. While Judge Kelleher noted that the number of heroin-related cases coming before him had “dropped significantly”, caused by the crackdown on opium production in Afghanistan, he worries that the gap could be filled by fentanyl and other extremely strong synthetic opiates.

While there have been no signs that the explosion in fentanyl use experienced in North America has found an echo in Ireland, the retired judge said: “If that comes in, and it’s cheap, it will be a problem.” But for now, we should celebrate an innovation from the Bench which has produced dividends, and which deserves to be copied elsewhere.

Captcha the moment... 

As technology increasingly comes to regard us, its users and “customers”, as the human equivalent of Pavlov’s Dog, it seems we must pass ever higher challenges to gain access to our favoured apps or services.

Hands up all those who haven’t failed, at least once, to correctly identify the number of buses shown on a 12- or 16-box grid. Or every square which had a parking meter in it (do you, or do you not, count boxes with only a sliver of equipment?) What about those examples of writing with hieroglyphics so difficult to discern that they make a doctor’s prescription note appear to be a model of clarity? 

Bad news for anyone who finds it irritating to be made to jump through mental hoops in this way. Websites that use these “captchas” (the acronym stands for “completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart”) are planning to make you up your game.

One writer from Wired magazine described how HBO Max demanded that users pass an audio challenge where they were presented with a selection of tunes and asked to identify the one with a repeating pattern.

It is easy to imagine that programmers are having a laugh at our expense. But they have problems of their own.

Systems driven by artificial intelligence are learning the rules and becoming ever more adept at defeating captchas and convincing them that the user is human. Hence the difficulty level must increase. Perhaps we should just let the robots get on with it between themselves, and only use services which can demonstrate commitment to that old-fashioned thing, the human interface.