€140m cost of jail, Garda overtime

Overtime in the Garda and prison service cost the taxpayer almost €140 million in 2001, or almost 70 per cent of the total overtime bill for the Civil Service, the Dáil Public Accounts Committee has heard.

In spite of numerous attempts to contain costs, the overtime bill in the prison service has continued to rise, and now accounts for 30 per cent of the overall wage bill for the service.

The Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Purcell, said this level of spending was unsustainable in the long term. But he admitted: "We're no closer to achieving our objectives, in spite of all the studies."

Overtime spending in the Garda reached a high of €84 million in 2001, although €19 million of this was accounted for by the foot-and-mouth crisis. Last year, the figure was €66 million, or about 10 per cent of the total salary bill.

The secretary general of the Department of Justice, Mr Tim Dalton, said about 15 per cent of overtime was caused when staff went sick. Another 25 per cent was due to the non-availability of staff on holidays and a similar amount was attributable to the cost of escorting prisoners to courts.

Mr Dalton said talks on a move to annualised hours would start soon with the Prison Officers' Association. This would mean all prison officers would be liable to work extra hours and would be paid for this liability, regardless of whether they were called to work.

Members also expressed concern about the ratio of one prison officer to each prisoner in Irish jails.

However, the director of the prison service, Mr Seán Aylward, said prison officers would "walk off the job" if savings were enforced. They had "sweated blood" to get extra posts and would not let them go without "significant and aggressive" action by the Government.

The Green TD, Mr Dan Boyle, questioned why so many Garda were present at recent events, saying there were 147 officers at the recent Leinster-Perpignan rugby match and 70 at an anti-war protest that attracted 30 people.