Prisoners to lose out on education as a result of overtime row

PRISONERS transferred to the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise from The Curragh as part of the current overtime row involving prison officers will suffer cutbacks to educational services.

The Prison Service confirmed yesterday there will be disruption to regular classes available to prisoners formerly housed at the Curragh Prison as their teachers are currently assigned to Kildare VEC.

A spokesperson said the disruption would affect classes until such time as the teachers’ new position was regularised. However, the spokesperson stressed all treatment programmes previously available at the Curragh will be continued at the new facility.

Prisoners moving from the Curragh to the Midlands Prison will be housed at a special secure wing which has been lying idle since it was first opened more than three years ago.

A total of 49 of the 86 prisoners at the Curragh, which mostly housed elderly sex offenders, were transferred to Portlaoise yesterday. One of the inmates who is currently bedridden was brought to the new facility by ambulance. The remaining 37 prisoners are due to be brought to the Midlands Prison later today.

All but a few prison staff, who will stay on at the Curragh for security and maintenance purposes, have also been moved to the Midlands Prison.

Although the Prison Officers’ Association described the closure of the Curragh as “provocative”, a Prison Service spokesperson confirmed prison officers would be entitled to an “out-of-pocket” allowance for any extra expenses incurred in travelling to Portlaoise.

The Curragh is the first of four detention centres to be affected as a result of the ongoing impasse between the Government and prison officers on efforts to reduce spending on overtime. The Prison Service is attempting to make cuts of more than €30m in its present €65m overtime budget.

Prison officers are being offered an annual lump sum of around €10,300 for doing 360 hours extra work each year.

Representatives of the POA and the Prison Service resumed talks at the Labour Relations Commission yesterday afternoon in a further attempt to reach settlement on the issue.

However, unless progress is made, Spike Island prison in Cork will also close on January 31. Prisoners and staff from Spike Island are likely to be transferred to prisons in Limerick and Dublin. The dispute will also affect open prisons at Shelton Abbey in County Wicklow and Loughan House in County Cavan which Justice Minister Michael McDowell has indicated will come under management not operated by prison officers next month.

However, he has also promised to reopen the Curragh centre once agreement is reached on the overtime issue.

Last night, Labour’s justice spokesperson Joe Costello said the closure of the Curragh Prison represented “an admission of failure to negotiate by Minister McDowell.”