Prison Service overtime system saves €22m less than predicted

The State’s spending watchdog has found that a system introduced to replace overtime in the Irish Prison Service has only saved the taxpayer €8m over eight years — despite original estimates predicting it would save the State €31m a year.

The Comptroller and Auditor General yesterday published its special report on the annualised hours system, which was introduced in 2005 to replace overtime in the Prison Service.

Overtime costs had peaked at €59m a year in 2002 and 2003.