Jury service shirkers

IT is not just the study of Irish that seems to exercise those unwilling to honour the obligations of living in this country. Of 37,600 Dublin residents called for jury service in the first ten months of last year, 26,782 sought and received exemptions, including some who actually had passed away, and 3,272 of whom simply failed to show up.

Again, we accept that for some, especially the likes of the self-employed, the seriously ill or full-time carers, the demands of a long-running trial are too onerous – but equally, you can bet that among the number exempted, there were some spurious reasons advanced as to why they could not attend.

There is no better system anywhere than judgment by 12 of your peers, and the diligence of our juries always has been admirable, as we so often see when it takes two– or even more – days for them to convict or acquit.

That system depends on representative juries, composed of men and women, old and young, and from all sorts of backgrounds. It cannot be left only to those for whom a trial is an adventure, not an inconvenience.

Being called for service is an important civic duty in a functioning democracy. With innocence presumed until guilt is proven, defendants deserve a system that is fair, and we welcome moves by the courts service to revamp the system to ensure exemptions are granted only to those with legitimate reasons for non-attendance.