The governing body of the Prison Officers' Association will meet today to consider management proposals to scrap overtime.
But speaking ahead of the meeting, POA vice-president, Mr Gerry Wilson, said the six-page document containing the management's proposals included "very little detail", and the association's executive would probably be seeking clarification on a range of issues later this week.
Mr Wilson said this would be the prelude for "some form of negotiation", but he claimed the 90-day deadline imposed by the Minister for Justice for consultations on the issue was "unrealistic".
Mr Wilson added: "There's an awful lot of work to be done before we get to the endgame on this."
However, a spokesman for the Department of Justice said the deadline applied as much to Mr McDowell himself as to the prison officers, since it had been made clear that there would no supplementary estimate this year and, by the end of July, there would be "no more money" for overtime. "The Minister is anxious that the sides sit down and thrash this out without delay," he added.
Prison officers staged a walk-out during Mr McDowell's speech to their recent annual conference, in which he described the overtime budget as "insatiable and indefensible".
The proposals since presented by prison management would eliminate overtime by introducing an annualised hours system of attendance, with staff being contracted to work additional time, for which they would be paid whether or not the extra hours were required.
A spokesman for the Irish Prison Service rejected suggestions that the 90-day deadline was unrealistic: "This didn't start with the Minister's speech to the conference. The process has been going on for about six years."
