The Prison Officers' Association (POA) has described as a "deplorable and shameful snub" the decision by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell not to attend its annual conference which opens in Castlebar, Co Mayo, this morning.
The association's president Gabriel Keaveney said last night that with talks on prison officer overtime pay now stalled, Mr McDowell had "run away when the going got tough".
He said the Minister had turned his back on the men and women of the prison service, all of whom do a dangerous job on behalf of the State.
Calling on the Minister, he said: "The present situation that we find ourselves in can and will only be solved by dialogue across the table, and we have already offered you the opportunity to enter into dialogue, and we await your response - wherever you are."
It had been 20 years since a Minister had declined an invitation to the annual conference. Since then any changes in the prison service had been brought about through partnership. Mr McDowell's non-attendance was a marked departure from this tradition.
Mr Keaveney was also critical of the director general of the prison service, Brian Purcell, for deciding not to attend either.
"It's an understatement to say his unjustified absence and indeed the absence of his invited officials from this conference is childish. This issue is much too serious for this type of tomfoolery."
A spokeswoman for Mr McDowell said the Minister believed his attendance at the conference would be a distraction. Mr McDowell believed this year's conference was a time for internal differences on the pay deal to be aired.
The prison service has said Mr Purcell also believes his presence might be a distraction from the substantive debate that needed to take place.
Calls for industrial action at the State's prisons and even calls for a reballot on a pay deal already rejected by prison officers are likely to be heard at the annual two-day conference.
The association's national executive is expected to come under pressure from delegates after it negotiated the deal on annualised hours and recommended that its members accept it, only to see the offer rejected by two to one in a ballot of its 3,200 members.
Talks between the POA, Mr Purcell and Mr McDowell ended in Dublin last week with no compromise.
Mr McDowell has insisted that following the rejection of the pay offer, he will now put in place a cost-cutting package across the service. Fort Mitchell Prison at Spike Island, Co Cork, and the Curragh Place of Detention, Co Kildare, have been mothballed since last year and these will now close permanently.
The status of two open prisons - Loughan House, Co Cavan, and Shelton Abbey, Co Wicklow - will also change. The running of these is to be placed outside the remit of the prison service. They are to be run as halfway houses for newly released inmates, and their combined capacity is to be doubled to 300.
Plans for the privatisation of prisoner escorts are already advanced.