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4 1976

JURIES ACT, 1976

PART II

Qualification and Liability for Service as a Juror

Jury districts.

5. —(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, each county shall be a jury district and for this purpose the county boroughs of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford shall be deemed to form part of the counties of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford respectively.

(2) The Minister may by order divide a county into two or more jury districts or limit a jury district to a part or parts of a county.

(3) The Minister may by order revoke or vary an order under this section.

(4) Every issue that is triable with a jury shall be triable with a jury called from a panel of jurors drawn from the jury district in which the court is sitting.

Qualification and liability for jury service.

6. —Subject to the provisions of this Act, every citizen aged eighteen years or upwards and under the age of seventy years who is entered in a register of Dáil electors in a jury district shall be qualified and liable to serve as a juror for the trial of all or any issues which are for the time being triable with a jury drawn from that jury district, unless he is for the time being ineligible or disqualified for jury service.

Ineligibility.

7. —The persons specified in Part I of the First Schedule shall be ineligible for jury service.

Disqualification.

8. —A person shall be disqualified for jury service if on conviction of an offence in any part of Ireland—

(a) he has at any time been sentenced to imprisonment or penal servitude for life or for a term of five years or more or to detention under section 103 of the Children Act, 1908, or under the corresponding law of Northern Ireland, or

(b) he has at any time in the last ten years—

(i) served any part of a sentence of imprisonment or penal servitude, being, in the case of imprisonment, a sentence for a term of at least three months, or

(ii) served any part of a sentence of detention in Saint Patrick's Institution or in a corresponding institution in Northern Ireland, being a sentence for a term of at least three months.

Excusal from service.

9. —(1) A county registrar shall excuse any person whom he has summoned as a juror under this Act if—

(a) that person is one of the persons specified in Part II of the First Schedule and informs the county registrar of his wish to be excused, or

(b) that person shows to the satisfaction of the county registrar that he has served on a jury, or duly attended to serve on a jury, in the three years ending with the service of the summons on him, or

(c) that person shows to the satisfaction of the county registrar that, at the conclusion of a trial, a judge of any court has excused him from jury service for a period that has not terminated.

(2) A county registrar may excuse any person whom he has summoned as a juror from attendance during the whole or any part of the sittings in question if that person shows to the registrar's satisfaction that there is good reason why he should be so excused.

(3) If a person summoned as a juror under this Act is unable, owing to illness or any other reason, to make any representation to a county registrar under subsection (1) or (2), another person may make the representation on his behalf.

(4) A person whom the county registrar has refused to excuse may appeal against the refusal to the court at which he has been summoned to attend.

(5) The procedure for the appeal, including the designation of the judge to hear the appeal, and the time within which and the manner in which it should be brought, shall be as provided by directions of the President of the High Court and the President of the Circuit Court respectively.

(6) The decision of the court shall be final.

(7) When a person is required to be in attendance as a juror at a court during a sitting, the judge shall have the same duty or discretion, as the case may be, as that imposed or conferred on the county registrar under this section to excuse that person from attendance or further attendance. The judge may also, for good reason, excuse the juror during the course of a trial from further service as a juror in the trial.

(8) The judge of any court may, at the conclusion of a trial of an exceptionally exacting nature, excuse the members of the jury from jury service for such period as the judge may think fit.