New restrictions on the right to bail, delayed because of inadequate prison accommodation, will be implemented this month, the Minister for Justice told prison officers yesterday.
Mr O'Donoghue also told the annual conference of the Prison Officers' Association at Westport, Co Mayo, that it was necessary to reduce and eventually remove their dependence on overtime payments to make up their wage packets.
And he hinted there could be privatisation of some prison services in the future. He said pay and privatisation initiatives would be entered into in a spirit of open discussion and partnership.
In his address to the 200 delegates, the Minister announced that the constitutional amendment to the bail laws would be implemented on May 16th. The amendment was passed in October 1997 but could not be introduced because there was inadequate prison accommodation. The changes to the bail laws mean that suspects no longer have an automatic right to bail before coming to trial. The courts will now be able to detain people awaiting trial where gardai believe further crimes might be committed. It is now expected that people facing the most serious crimes - from murder to armed robbery - may be detained in custody before trial.
A new prison especially for those who have been refused bail has been built at Cloverhill, beside Wheatfield Prison, in west Dublin. A district court has been built in the complex so prisoners no longer have to be transported daily by van to Dublin District Court. The prison opens this month.
Mr O'Donoghue said: "When this Government came into office in June 1997, we set ourselves the target of providing a total of 2,000 additional prison places. The first 1,000 places have been delivered and the Government recently renewed our commitment to providing the remaining 1,000 places during its term of office."
He said the Government's vision was for a prison service "second to none in terms of professionalism" and for "substantial reductions in expenditure on staffing".
"This will result in considerable efficiency gains and a reduction in overtime costs within parameters which will have to be negotiated with your association. Some savings are possible immediately through local management action; others will require changes to buildings, or the introduction of technology such as more close-circuit TV systems and others will require negotiations with your representatives."
He said examples of matters that would require negotiations at national level would be the revision of existing rosters to address the need for greater flexibility in attendance arrangements; the elimination of dependence on overtime; the recruitment of staff for roles which did not require the skills of a fully trained prison officer - for example, driving; and the adjustment of staff meal breaks to enable staff and prisoner routines to be modified and regimes improved.
"The next phase of this project will entail setting up a joint working party to examine how the revised tasks identified in these reports might be undertaken without the need for overtime working. The working party will also have to address the need for changes to be made to the management and organisational structure and to officers' conditions of service.
"The aim is that this working party will present a blueprint for a quality and professional service which balances, on the one hand, our obligations to provide safe and secure custody and, on the other hand, to provide re-socialisation opportunities for prisoners in a cost-effective way.
"I do, of course, recognise that complex negotiations will be needed to implement these changes. I also recognise that the overtime bill of £30 million per annum represents, in a real sense, remuneration for your members and that take-home pay inevitably is a sensitive subject. The task of the negotiators on each side will be to find the common ground between the management and staff agendas which would satisfy each side's core aspirations. However, I have to caution that the maintenance of current levels of overtime earnings cannot be guaranteed.
"Our average costs at £52,000 per prisoner per annum are double the comparative costs in Scotland. While I accept that there are valid reasons for some variation in costs, the scale of difference means that it would be more advisable to think in terms of a soft landing from the current high levels of overtime over a period of a few years."
Mr O'Donoghue said the Government's prisons policy was different from other states that had opted for privately run institutions.
However, he added: "The emerging competitive reality means that we will have to adapt and introduce efficiencies into the service. I should make it clear that my commitment to you is that, in this jurisdiction, in any consideration of privatisation, the prison service management will, in the spirit of partnership, engage in the fullest consultation possible."