Deal to reduce €59m prison overtime bill far from complete

A DEAL to reduce the €59 million prison overtime bill is still far from complete with less than two weeks to go to the agreement deadline.

The Prison Officer’s Association (POA) has warned that the 90-day negotiation period imposed by Justice Minister Michael McDowell is not realistic.

“Discussions are ongoing but we’ve got to work out a deal for 17 institutions which are so different, it’s unbelievable,” deputy general secretary Eugene Dennehy said.

Minister McDowell announced his intention to reform the overtime system at the POA conference in May, prompting most officers to walk out in protest. He said the resources needed for modernised prisons, training and rehabilitation programmes were being “cannibalised to feed the insatiable and indefensible overtime budget”.

Prison officers earn more overtime than any other group in the public sector and the average prison officer takes home more than €18,000 in overtime pay a year.

Last year, the overtime bill for the prison service amounted to €59 million of a €300m prison service budget. In contrast, overtime accounts for just €50m of the €1 billion Garda Budget, according to the Department of Justice.

“The Department of Finance have made it absolutely clear there will be no more funds for prison officer overtime this year. But the Minister is confident that the prison officers and the Irish Prison Service can sort out a deal,” a Department spokesman said.

He said if no agreement was reached, a contingency agreement would have to be worked out. This could include employing private security firms to carry out the overtime.

The POA said this approach simply would not work. “If you bring in private people, they’ll be running out the gates of Mountjoy because they won’t be able to handle it,” Mr Dennehy said, referring specifically to this week’s syringe attack on three officers.