Army ready to take over prisons, says O’Dea

THE army will be sent in to take over the running of the country’s prisons if current efforts at preventing a strike by prison officers fail, the Minister for Defence and Defence Forces Chief of Staff confirmed.

Defence Minister Willie O’Dea said he did not anticipate he would need to send in troops as the Prison Officers Association had made contact with Department of Justice officials in recent days to try to resolve their differences but he said soldiers were ready to move in.

“I don’t envisage the situation will get to that point but if it does, we have to have contingency measures in place,” he said.