Only one in five people called for jury service in Limerick criminal trials are turning up because of fear of intimidation. The number has dropped dramatically from four in five as major gangland figures sit in the front row in court, when their associates are on trial, in order to intimidate jurors.

The shocking rise in intimidation was revealed in the Dail yesterday by the Government's two security ministers during a debate on new legislation, which proposes to move gangland trials to the non-jury Special Criminal Court, if the DPP approves.

Other incidents of attempts to tamper with jurors are included in confidential information supplied to the Government by Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy.

In response to opposition criticism of the plan to use the Special Criminal Court to deal with gangland offences, in certain circumstances, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern warned that alternative options were not viable and would not guarantee freedom from intimidation.

These included sequestering jurors, using jurors from outside the community where the defendant lived, shielding them from sight of open court and providing them with round-the-clock protection.

Defence Minister Willie O'Dea said the number of criminal trials in Limerick had risen from 67 in 2,000 to 124, but the amount of jurors called had jumped from 1,000 to more than 8,000 to ensure enough were available after the rest had submitted medical certificates about stress and anxiety.

The Dail was told that the McCarthy-Dundon gang, which was responsible for ordering the murders of Roy Collins and Shane Geoghegan in the past eight months as well as gang rival Kieran Keane and nightclub security man Brian Fitzgerald, had also been involved with Dublin criminals in the murder of Latvian mother, Baiba Saulite, who was gunned down at her home in Swords, Co Dublin, in November 2006.

The Government is aiming to push the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill through the Dail and Oireachtas by Friday and hope that it will be enacted by the end of the month.

Gang

Mr Ahern said that until the murder of Roy Collins, who was singled out because a relative had given evidence in court against gang members, he had resisted calls for sterner legislation. But he could not stand by and let the criminal justice system be undermined.

The decision to provide for a limited number of specific "organised crime" offences to be prosecuted in the Special Criminal Court was taken on the basis of the advice of the Garda Commissioner and information provided by others involved in the criminal justice system.

Court officials in Limerick had cited incidents where gang members sat in the front row to intimidate juries and the fear in the community resulted in a marked drop in jury attendance.

Mr O'Dea attacked critics, such as the Irish Human Rights Commission, who argued there was no data on the existence of jury tampering. He said the unfortunate truth was that there was widespread anecdotal evidence of jury intimidation in Limerick.

He recalled that 729 people had been called for jury service for the trial of six leading members of one of the most violent gangs in the country for the murder of rival gangland figure Kieran Keane in 2003, but the State found it impossible to get 12 people to serve. The trial was moved to Cloverhill in Dublin.