Prisons could shut if overtime plan fails

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell could close four prisons if officers don’t accept a plan to reduce the annual €60m overtime bill.

The closure of the prisons, including a facility for sex offenders, would result in more than 300 staff and inmates being moved to other prisons.

The Irish Prison Service will submit the plan to the minister this week if the prison officers’ union rejects its proposal to reduce the overtime bill.

Senior prison sources say the Curragh Prison, where most inmates are sex offenders, and the infamous Fort Mitchell Prison on Spike Island in Cork Harbour are the two biggest facilities to face closure. The open prisons at Loughan House, Co Cavan and Shelton Abbey, Co Wicklow would also be shut down.

Talks with prison officer representatives collapsed last week and tomorrow Prison Officers Association (POA) chiefs will meet to decide on whether to recommend that members accept or reject the overtime offer. The deal offers staff 1.8 times the hourly rate for 360 hours of overtime a year. Prison officers earn, on average, over €19,000 on overtime annually.

Irish Prison Service director Seán Aylward has bypassed the POA and sent the proposals directly to staff.

The POA national executive is expected to ballot its members later this week or early next week on the proposals. But prison authorities don’t hold out much hope that officers will agree to a deal where they would commit themselves to 360 hours overtime not knowing when they would be working.

Yesterday, a Department of Justice spokesperson said Mr McDowell will be briefing his Cabinet colleagues on the talks between the POA and the Irish Prisons Service in the coming weeks.

“It would not be prudent for us to make any comment in advance of that,” the spokesperson said.

An Irish Prisons Service spokesman denied any plans were finalised, but admitted contingency plans were being worked on.

“There is no document prepared at the moment. We are looking at how we are going to stay within budget,” he said.

The prison service has a €300 million annual budget, with €205m going on pay for prison officers.

As Mr McDowell has warned that the prison service must stay within budget, the prison authorities would have to cut down on the overtime bill by closing prisons and redeploying prison officers to other facilities.

Overtime costs have also eaten up the funds for the refurbishment of prisons with €20m due to be spent on essential new programmes being diverted this year to meet the overtime bill. The programmes included the upgrading of Cork Prison, where more than 260 prisoners are held in a jail built for 150. It has no in-cell sanitation and some cells hold up to five people.