Prison officers let loose on McDowell

PRISON officers didn’t pull any punches yesterday in a bitter attack on Justice Minister Michael McDowell’s “master plans” for the Prison Service.

The president of the Prison Officers’ Association Gabriel Keaveny delivered several body-blows to the minister in hard-hitting speech to the POA’s annual conference in Ennis, Co Clare.

Last year, most of the delegates stormed out during Mr McDowell’s speech in protest at his radical plans to cut prison overtime, first revealed in the Irish Examiner that morning. Delegates had read that the minister was giving them just 90 days to agree to a deal to halve the 60 million annual overtime bill.