No major fall in jail sick leave

Prison service reforms introduced by the Government have not so far led to a reduction in the level of sick leave among prison officers on the scale projected, the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, has told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee.

In a document drawn up in response to a recent report by the committee, the Minister said that an assumption of a 33 per cent reduction in the level of sick leave had been built into the new annualised hours system for prison officers.

"The new system is only in place in all prisons for six months and, although in some prisons progress has been made, the projected reduction has not been achieved to date," the Minister told the committee.

The report submitted by Mr Cowen said the Department of Justice had accepted the recommendation of the Dáil committee that there should be more monitoring and evaluation of the causes of sick leave in the prison service.