Failure to answer jury summons will not be tolerated – Judge Garavan

A CIRCUIT Court judge has issued a warning to the people of Mayo that failure to answer their jury summons will no longer be tolerated.

Judge Eoin Garavan issued the warning this lunchtime (Tuesday) at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court after the impanelling of juries for criminal trials had to be postponed because less than 10 percent of people issued with a summons turned up to court.

The court heard that 350 people were issued with jury summons for trials to begin this week but of that figure only 32 turned up this morning. The prosecution had planned to form juries for three trials this week but were only able to impanel one jury.

A selection process for the second jury had to be postponed when only eleven jurors out of 12 could be selected as a result of the lack of numbers.

Mr Patrick Reynolds, counsel for the prosecution informed Judge Garavan that the court service had been unable to contact members of the jury panel who had failed to turn up. He asked for an adjournment until tomorrow morning to see if more members of the jury panel can be contacted to attend.

Judge Garavan agreed but expressed his dissatisfaction that a large number of people had failed to answer their jury summons saying it was unprecedented. He said this was resulting in a backlog of cases and warned the court service will have to be more proactive in dealing with people who do not comply.

“I want to make it clear to the people of Mayo that the court service will be more proactive in dealing with people who do not turn up. There is a post Covid back log in cases which cannot be cleared because the citizenry are not complying with their obligations. We need to send out a message...this position cannot be tolerated,” he warned.

Irish citizens aged 18 and over who are on the Register of Electors are eligible for jury service and anyone who fails to answer their summons without lawful excuse is liable to a €500 fine. Mr Reynolds said this penalty had been raised in recent years because people were not answering their jury summons.

Judge Garavan told the court that former Circuit Court Judge Harvey Kenny was known to ask gardaí to approach people on the Mall in Castlebar to serve on a jury but he was not inclined to do that.

In order to select a panel of 12 jurors for a particular case, names are drawn out of a ballot box and jurors who are deemed eligible are sworn onto a jury panel.

Both the prosecution and the defence can challenge seven potential jurors without giving any reason and can challenge any number of jurors if they can 'show cause'.