The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) began industrial action affecting services in prisons yesterday. John Downes reports.
The withdrawal of doctors services, which is initially intended to last one week, means only emergency services are available in the country's 16 institutions.
However, it is understood that if the matter is not resolved, the strike is likely to be extended on a week-by-week basis.
There are some 30 prison doctors serving the country's 3,000-strong prison population.
Responding to a statement from the Irish Prison Service (IPS), in which it claimed it was "seriously concerned" about the impact of industrial action on prisoners' health and well-being, Mr Fintan Hourihan, of the IMO, said the move was a "last resort".
His members had, he said, postponed similar action on three previous occasions on the understanding that the IPS would put a serious proposal to them in relation to prison doctors' pay and conditions.
However, there had been "no tangible improvement" since then, leaving his members with little option but to strike.
"We have taken steps to ensure that emergency provision is in place.
"I would agree that we share the IPS's concerns that any sustained industrial action is going to have a serious effect on the health of prisoners.
"We obviously have to engage in strike action as a last resort if the IPS can't come out with a realistic proposal."
In a strongly-worded statement issued earlier yesterday, the IPS accused the IMO of not providing adequate cover for emergency treatment.
It said the IMO had undertaken to provide this cover during the period of the industrial action. However, this required that all requests for emergency treatment be channelled through the IMO strike committee via the prison governor and the director of prison healthcare in the IPS.
This failed to adequately meet current IMO guidelines on strike action, the statement claimed.
Furthermore, the IPS said it was "disappointed" at what it deemed "unnecessary industrial action" in the absence of an agreed outcome to recent facilitated discussions at the Labour Relations Commission.
The IPS had made a significantly improved offer to prison doctors at these talks, the statement claimed.
It had also indicated that it was willing to proceed immediately to third-party arbitration by an appropriate industrial relations body, and to implement whatever recommendation it made in relation to doctors' pay.
However, Mr Hourihan last night labelled the IPS statement "highly disingenuous and misleading".
The IPS had, he said, adopted a "highly selective" approach" to the figures it had quoted in relation to prison doctors' pay.
He said that there had been a turnover of 50 per cent of prison doctors in recent years, indicating that it was increasingly difficult to attract doctors to prison work.