Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Nobody is demonising lay people. I am a champion of jury trial and I strongly believe in the jury trial. I have always thought that judge-only trial in criminal matters would end up being unfair and unjust, because judges become case-hardened and they tend to believe the people in uniform. We need a system whereby people are brought together to act as jurors, and I agree with what Senator Dolan said in respect of that. I have no objection to the permanent status, which is a constitutional status, of lay people at the centre of important decisions as to whether people are guilty or not guilty of serious offences. That is absolutely crystal clear.

We do not allow in this country what goes on in America, where two or three weeks before a jury trial takes place, potential jurors are all interrogated on where they stand on everything from civil and political liberty to the colour of their skin, their attitudes to people and everything else. This is what is wrong with the American jury system. They have developed it to an art form. There are specialist lawyers who come in to try to influence the composition of the jury, and to take the notion of averageness or laity away and try to stack it in their favour one way or the other. Nobody needs to tell me about the merits of jury trial and lay involvement. I have no problem with it whatsoever.