No tears from court criers claiming high expenses

There may be fewer court criers than ever but they continue to dominate the Courts Service’s top rankings of employees claiming the highest expenses.

In figures provided by the service in response to a freedom of information request, it yesterday confirmed that seven out of the top 10 claimants for expenses in 2014 were court criers. The criers’ most public role is to usher judges into courtrooms with a call of “all rise please”.

The top claimant was a court messenger who got €21,777 in expenses, followed by a court crier who got €20,075. Another court crier was ranked fourth and received €16,526 — court criers’ annual salaries range from €22,658 to €31,517.