Jury Service in Ireland: Eligibility, Excusal, Fines and Employer Pay

Every year the Courts Service summons ordinary residents of Ireland to sit on criminal and civil juries. A jury summons is a court order rather than an invitation, and the Juries Act 1976 as amended decides who must serve, who cannot serve, who can step away simply by asking, and what it costs to ignore the envelope.

This guide sets out the current position under the revised Act: qualification, the three statutory categories people constantly mix up, the summons process, the fines in Part V, and the rule most readers are actually searching for, which is whether your employer has to keep paying you.

Information last verified on 20 July 2026. This page is general legal information for the Republic of Ireland, not legal advice.

Who is qualified for jury service in Ireland?

Section 6 of the Juries Act 1976, as revised, is short. Every citizen aged eighteen years or upwards who is entered in a register of Dáil electors in a jury district is qualified and liable to serve as a juror.

That is the whole test: Irish citizenship, an age of at least 18, and entry on the Dáil electoral register for the jury district the summons comes from. Being qualified and liable is only the starting point, because the Act then removes some people entirely and lets others opt out on request.

The upper age limit was abolished, not raised

This is the single most common error in circulation. Ireland did not raise the maximum jury age from 65 to 70 or 75. It removed the ceiling completely. The words setting the upper age limit were deleted from section 6 with effect from 1 January 2009 by section 54 of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2008, brought into operation by S.I. No. 274 of 2008. Since that date there is no maximum age for jury service in Ireland at all.

What replaced the ceiling is a softer rule. Persons aged sixty-five years or upwards appear in Part II of the First Schedule, which means they are excusable as of right. An older juror can serve if they wish, and is excused without argument if they say they would rather not.

Ineligible, disqualified or excusable: three different things

People use these three words interchangeably in conversation, and courts do not. They sit in different sections, they have different causes, and only one of them is a choice.

Who is ineligible

Part I of the First Schedule starts with Uachtarán na hÉireann, then covers persons concerned with the administration of justice. That heading is wide. It takes in anyone holding or who has at any time held judicial office, the Attorney General and staff, the Director of Public Prosecutions and staff, barristers and solicitors actually practising as such, solicitors' apprentices and clerks and others employed on work of a legal character in solicitors' offices, officers attached to a court or to the President of the High Court and people employed in any office attached to a court, members of An Garda Síochána, prison officers and members of the Defence Forces.

Part I also covers people with an incapacity, and the current wording is much narrower than the version still quoted in older guides. Since 1 January 2009 that head has read simply: persons who have an incapacity to read, or an enduring impairment, such that it is not practicable for them to perform the duties of a juror.

A separate head, added on 26 April 2023 by section 96(b) of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act 2022, covers a person who does not, in the opinion of the court, have sufficient mental or intellectual capacity to serve as a juror. That is a court's assessment in the individual case, not a status bar.

The older wording, which barred anyone with a mental illness or disability requiring residence in a hospital or regular treatment, was deleted by section 64 of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2008 with effect from 1 January 2009 and is no longer the law. Being on regular treatment for a mental health condition does not, by itself, make a person ineligible.

Section 7(2) is worth stating plainly because older commentary gets it wrong: a person who is deaf is not ineligible for jury service by reason only of requiring the services of a sign language interpreter to perform the duties of a juror effectively.

Who is disqualified

Section 8 disqualifies a person who, on conviction of an offence in any part of Ireland, has at any time been sentenced to imprisonment or penal servitude for life or for a term of five years or more. It also disqualifies a person who, in the last ten years, has served any part of a sentence of imprisonment or penal servitude, the three month minimum term applying in the case of imprisonment, or any part of a sentence of detention of at least three months in Saint Patrick's Institution or a corresponding institution in Northern Ireland.

Disqualification is about the sentence, not the charge. A conviction that produced a fine or a short community sanction does not disqualify you.

Who is excusable as of right

Part II of the First Schedule lists the people who must be excused if they ask. It includes:

• Persons aged sixty-five years or upwards
• Members of either House of the Oireachtas, members of the Council of State, the Comptroller and Auditor General, and the Clerk of Dáil Éireann and the Clerk of Seanad Éireann
• Persons in Holy Orders, ministers of any religious denomination or community, and members of a monastery or convent
• Practising doctors, dentists, nurses, midwives, veterinary surgeons and pharmaceutical chemists
• Masters of vessels, duly licensed pilots and duly licensed aircraft commanders
• Full-time students

A further group is excusable only on certification that the role cannot be postponed or reasonably performed by someone else: staff of either House of the Oireachtas, heads of government departments, civil servants, chief executives and employees of a local authority, HSE employees, harbour authority employees, school teachers and university lecturers.

Excusal on other grounds under section 9

Two situations oblige the county registrar to excuse you under section 9(1)(b) and (c): where you served on a jury, or duly attended to serve, in the three years ending with the service of the summons, and where a judge excused you at the conclusion of a trial for a period that has not yet ended.

Beyond that, section 9(2) gives the county registrar a discretion to excuse a summoned person from all or part of the sittings where good reason is shown. Illness, caring responsibilities and pre-booked commitments are handled here, on evidence, and the answer is a decision rather than an entitlement.

A refusal is not the end of it. Section 9(4) provides that a person whom the county registrar has refused to excuse may appeal against the refusal to the court at which they have been summoned to attend. A trial judge has a separate power to excuse a jury after a case of an exceptionally exacting nature for such period as the judge thinks fit.

What happens after the summons arrives

Jurors are summoned by the county registrar, and the summons names the date you must attend. You must reply to it, and the reply can be made online at jury.courts.ie, through the QR code printed on the summons, or by post using the enclosed form and pre-paid envelope.

If you are excusable as of right, say so when you reply. If you want to be excused for some other reason, state the reason and enclose any supporting certificates, and the county registrar will decide.

Everyone summoned and not excused must attend on the first day. Those who attend form the panel, and section 15(1) provides that the selection of persons empanelled as jurors to serve on a particular jury is made by balloting in open court. Names are drawn by ballot from the panel to fill the jury, and in the jury box you get a chance to say that you are ineligible or disqualified, that you know the accused, a witness or a participant, or that you are otherwise connected with the case. Section 15(3) requires the judge, before selection begins, to warn the panel not to serve if ineligible or disqualified, to warn them of the section 36 penalty, and to invite anyone unqualified, in doubt, or with an interest or connection to say so.

Each side may challenge seven potential jurors without cause, or eight in a criminal trial where the judge has ordered additional jurors under section 15A, and any number for cause shown. Where a case is expected to last more than two months, up to 15 jurors may be sworn under section 15A, a change introduced by the Courts and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2013.

What are the penalties for ignoring a jury summons?

Part V of the Juries Act 1976 contains the offences. The euro figures were substituted on 1 January 2009 by the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2008 and now correspond to fine classes under the Fines Act 2010.

The asymmetry is worth reading twice. The maximum fine for skipping jury service altogether is €500. The maximum fine for turning up and serving when you know a past sentence disqualifies you is €2,000, four times as much. The Act treats a contaminated jury as the more serious problem.

One technical point on the figures. Part V fines now operate through the fine classes in the Fines Act 2010, and the revised Act notes that the €2,000 in section 36(2) translates into a class C fine, not greater than €2,500. The €500 rows are the maxima printed in the Act itself.

Does your employer have to pay you for jury service?

Yes, and the wording of the Act is unusually strong. Section 29(1) provides that for the purposes of any contract of service or apprenticeship, or any agreement collateral to it, a person is to be treated as employed or apprenticed during any period when they are absent from their employment or apprenticeship in order to comply with a jury summons.

Section 29(2) then closes the obvious loophole. Any provision in such a contract or agreement is void in so far as it would have the effect of excluding or limiting any liability of the employer in respect of the payment of salary or wages during that absence. A clause in a contract or a staff handbook saying that jury service is unpaid leave, or capped at a few days, has no legal effect.

The practical position is that time on jury service is treated as if you were at work, you are entitled to be paid, and there should be no loss of any other employment rights. This applies to employees on a contract of employment, including temporary and contract workers.

You can ask the jury office for a certificate confirming your attendance, which is what an employer's payroll section will normally want to see. If your employment rights are infringed, the complaint route is the Workplace Relations Commission through its online complaint form.

What does the court pay you?

Almost nothing, and this surprises people every time. You are not paid by the State for jury service, and travelling expenses are not allowed. The one thing the court provides is lunch, and only on the days you are actually serving as a juror on a trial. That is precisely why section 29 matters: the financial burden of jury service sits with the employer, by design.

Two groups fall outside that design. A self-employed sole trader whose attendance would stop them earning a living may qualify to be excused, and should contact the jury office of the court named on the summons. A person signing on for a Jobseeker's payment continues to be paid, but should tell their local social welfare office that they have been called.

How long does jury service last?

There is no fixed period written into the Juries Act 1976. Your obligation runs to the sittings you were summoned for, and you must return to court each day, whether or not you have been sworn onto a jury, unless the court tells you otherwise. A trial can finish in a day or run for weeks, and the court office named on your summons can tell you what its own sittings pattern looks like. What the Act does give you is a rest afterwards: once you have served, or duly attended to serve, you are excusable as of right for the next three years under section 9(1)(b).

Most everyday civil disputes never reach a jury at all. The small claims procedure is decided by a registrar on paper, and residential tenancy disputes go to the RTB rather than to a court. You can browse the rest of our Irish coverage from the Ireland law hub, including everyday offences such as the knife law and dog control rules that fill District Court lists.

Frequently asked questions

This page is general information about jury service in the Republic of Ireland and is not legal advice. Questions about a particular summons should go to the jury office of the court named on it, or to the Courts Service; questions about pay or employment rights during jury service can be raised with the Workplace Relations Commission, and anyone facing a prosecution under Part V of the Juries Act 1976 should speak to a solicitor.