Probation officers in boycott threat

PROBATION officers are threatening to boycott a new community scheme supervising released sex offenders over a staffing crisis.

Probation officers said they were already buckling under their existing workload and that no extra staff had been appointed to deal with the sex offender scheme.

The threat follows strong criticism last Friday of the state of the Probation Service by Clare District Court judge Joseph Mangan and representations by the local law association to Justice Minister Michael McDowell.