The Cabinet agreed yesterday to threaten to close two prisons, privatise the prison escort service and cap prison staffing and overtime levels in an escalation of a confrontation with prison officers over their €64 million overtime bill, write Mark Brennock & Conor Lally.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, also warned there were contingency plans at an advanced stage for the staffing of the State's prisons by Army and Garda personnel in the event of serious industrial action by prison officers on the issue.
The Prison Officers' Association said it had put forward a plan last week which would have secured savings of €30 million, but it had been dismissed. It accused the Minister of having set out to close prisons and privatise prison escorts in order to cut costs. It also strongly rejected a statement by the Minister late yesterday that the POA had ignored union advice to accept a pay offer on annualised hours. It added that some 650 prisoners were currently classified as "unlawfully at large, and nothing is being done about it".
A spokesman for the Minister said the figure had been released before, related to a long period of time and included inmates who had returned late after temporary release.
Mr McDowell called on the POA either to accept his proposal to reduce the overtime bill or face implementation of the measures approved by Cabinet yesterday. He set a deadline of January 1st next for acceptance of his proposed overtime system which, he says, would save €30 million per year.
His threatened measures in the event of failure to reach agreement include the temporary closure of prisons at Spike Island and the Curragh from January, the introduction of a new entry grade for new prison officers and the staffing of the open prisons at Loughan House and Shelton Abbey by non-prison service staff.
Mr McDowell said prison officers' overtime payments had grown out of all control and were cannibalising funds allocated by the Oireachtas for major building, refurbishment and improvement of the prison service generally.
Some €64 million will be spent on overtime for about 3,300 prison officers this year. Some basic-grade officers had annual earnings of more than €100,000 as a result of overtime, Mr McDowell added.
The prison officers were offered €10,000 extra in their salary in return for working up to 360 hours overtime per year. They were also offered a once-off payment of €12,250 payable over three years. They rejected the offer.
Mr McDowell said the POA had made a "wholly unrealistic" proposal for either major pay increases or the recruitment of 1,200 extra prison officers.