Jury service

I never saw an Irish jury summons until today. It had me scratching my head, to be honest.

A PERSON WHO, HAVING BEEN DULY SUMMONED AS A JUROR, FAILS WITHOUT REASONABLE EXCUSE TO ATTEND FOR JURY SERVICE OR, HAVING ATTENDED IN PURSUANCE OF A SUMMONS, IS NOT AVAILABLE WHEN CALLED UPON TO SERVE AS A JUROR OR IS UNFIT FOR SERVICE BY REASON OF DRINK OR DRUGS, IS GUILTY OF AN OFFENCE AND IS LIABLE ON SUMMARY CONVICTION TO A FINE OF €63.49.

€63.49? What sort of bizarre figure is that? I realize it's £50 in old money, but couldn't they have rounded it up to at least €63.50?

It seems awfully low to me. I don't think it would be worth it to show up for jury duty if all you risk losing is €63.49. For how many people is that a day's wage?

I also don't understand why these people are excused "as of right":

• a person in Holy Orders, a regular minister of a religious denomination or community, nuns
• doctors, dentists, nurses, midwives
• veterinarians
• heads of health boards
• school principals and any teacher the school claims is needed
• whole-time students
• licensed pilots

I'm not saying there aren't good explanations for some (or even all) of these, but there's something really annoying about this. Why is the head of a health board (he's not an active surgeon, presumably) excused but the head of a big department in a large company is not? Why shouldn't someone who's self-employed be excused? I'd bet the head of the health board would be paid for the missed week, but the self-employed person will not.