Probation officers are to begin industrial action today in a dispute over plans to allow candidates with no criminal justice or welfare experience apply for the new post of director of the service.
Over 260 probation officers who are members of the IMPACT trade union will withdraw co-operation with the Parole Board and limit their involvement with drugs task forces and community service projects. They are also threatening to extend their action by refusing to make court appearances or prepare offender assessments for judges if the Department of Justice does not address their concerns.
The Parole Board, which considers early release applications from offenders serving sentences of seven years or more, receives on average one application per week and requires an assessment from a probation officer before making a recommendation to the Minister for Justice. IMPACT says the non-co-operation of officers will "paralyse" the service.
Staff will refuse to provide out-of-hours advice and consultation for the country's local drugs tasks forces, 14 are in Dublin, one in Cork and one in Bray. They will also refuse to do on-site out-of-hours visits to community service projects to confirm for the courts that offenders are doing the work set out for them.
Today's action was signalled several months ago after the Department announced the new position of Director of Probation would not be filled by the time the service's most senior officer, the principal probation officer, retires at the end of 2001.
The principal officer's contract has been extended to this June but IMPACT says the Department has refused to give assurances that his replacement will have a professional qualification in any of the disciplines normally required for the service. "They're looking for somebody with managerial skills, which of course are necessary, but we would argue you also need somebody who has experience in social work or some aspect of the criminal justice system," said an IMPACT spokesman.
The Department has offered to appoint an existing staff member as temporary director after the principal officer's extended term expires in June.