ANYONE WHO HAS ever dreamed about imposing law and order on a tough town, listen up.
Dublin is advertising for a new sheriff to round up the bad guys, collect debts, and hold gun battles in the middle of the main street when things turn nasty.
Well, maybe not that last bit (unless things get really heavy).
A listing posted on the publicjobs.ie website on Friday is looking for a new Dublin County Sheriff. The application says that the person will be “responsible for enforcing court orders in civil debt, collection on behalf of the Revenue Commissioners of outstanding tax debts and acting as Returning Officer in certain elections.”
It doesn’t say anything about a gun and a badge but we’re going to just assume that that’s included.
Anyone applying for the job must have spent at least 5 years working as a barrister, solicitor or a principal assistant to a sheriff. They’ll be one of a small number of people doing the same job: Ireland has 16 sheriffs (two of them in Dublin – city and county – two in Cork and a dozen more spread throughout the country).
Sheriffs generally keep a bit of a low profile – except for when they have to enforce an order by a court to get back money owed by a debt. There are time when this involves removing contents or indeed, the owner, from a property, which has happened a lot more in recent years with the downturn in the economy.
One of the strangest aspect of the role of sheriff is that it doesn’t come with a set salary from the State. Instead, sheriffs get paid based on the amount of revenue they recover – so currently they get a fee set at 5 per cent of the first €5,500 that they seize and 2.5 per cent of the rest. They also get expenses and a retainer towards administration and office duties.
So if you’ve got a yearning to put wrongs right and garner the respect of your fellow citizens, you know where to go. Hope you’re feeling lucky, punk.
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