Minister supports tougher jury penalties

The Minister for Justice has backed calls for tougher penalties for people who fail to turn up for jury service. A spokesman for Mr McDowell said the Minister believed penalties should be "more severe" than the current €63 fine for non-attendance.

He added that the Minister "may take into consideration" a proposal to compensate jurors for their service to encourage a greater social mix on jury panels.

Mr McDowell was responding to the revelation that only 120 people out of 400 showed up for jury service at the current sittings of Ennis Circuit Court, with 100 people failing to attend without explanation.

The president of the Clare Law Association, Mr Gerry Flynn, described the current fine for non-attendance as "absurd", and warned that if the trend of non-attendance continued the court would be left with an insufficient panel for a jury.

Complaints among barristers over the composition of juries are common, with reports of a heavy concentration of young people, the retired and the unemployed on jury panels.

"The jury pool does not properly represent all of the strata in society," a barrister told The Irish Times yesterday. "Proper remuneration for jurors and sanctions for those who avoid jury service would ensure a greater social mix, especially in lengthy trials."

Some barristers complained that the 1976 Juries Act took away a judge's right to order the arrest of someone who failed to attend for jury duty. The act replaced this sanction with the €63 fine, which, according to anecdotal evidence, is rarely if ever enforced.

A spokeswoman for the Garda said it did not keep figures on prosecutions for jury non-attendance, and nor was it aware of any such prosecution in recent years.