Prison officers: Jail closures a bully tactic

The closure of Spike Island and the Curragh Prison has destroyed the lives of prison officers and their families it was claimed today.

Some officers must drive up to three hours each way every day since their transfer to Limerick Prison and the Midland Prison in Portlaoise.

The Prison Officers’ Association, which led a protest of 100 prison officers and their families outside the Dáil today, said it was a bullying tactic by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to force them to accept the prison overtime deal.

“This decision has been taken by the minister to put pressure on our members to accept the deal.

"That is unacceptable and our people will not be bullied into doing something which they do not wish to do,” said deputy general secretary Eugene Dennehy.

Prison officers and their families carried signs such as “Minister Don’t Take My Dad Away” and “Stop Prison Closures”.

The Spike Island Prison, which housed juvenile offenders, and the Curragh Prison, which housed sex offenders, have been closed for the past 18 months.

Mr McDowell made this closure permanent last month following the rejection of the prison overtime deal by an overwhelming majority of prison officers. It would have introduced a system of annualised hours to cut the €60m overtime bill.

But Mr Dennehy said the POA had passed a motion at its annual conference in favour of a new deal which would involve widening the overtime ban and allowing some prison officers not to do overtime, at no extra cost to the state.

“It’s a window of opportunity that shouldn’t be missed by the minister. This should not be thrown back in the face of prison officers by the minister,” he said.

Mr McDowell is also planning to privatise the prison escort service and to hand the running of the country’s remaining open prison – Loughan House in Co Cavan and Shelton Abbey in Co Wicklow – to an independent agency.

Alan Walsh, a prison officer who was transferred from The Curragh to the Midlands Prison, said the decision was a bullying tactic taken against democracy.

He added that it had had a severe effect on the lives of prison officers and their families.

“I’m travelling an extra 50 miles a day to work. I’m actually considering uprooting my family and moving them further,” he said.

Kieran Lynch, a prison officer who was transferred from Spike Island in Cork to The Midlands Prison said he was spending four hours on the road each day.

“I’m gone in the morning out of the house at 6am and I’m not back till 10pm. The kids are in bed. I don’t see them during the week. It’s destroying our family life,” he said.

Dan Murray said he had his wife Annette were currently adopting a child and added that the continued closure of Spike Island would have big consequences on this.

Mr Murray was transferred to Limerick Prison when Spike Island closed.

He said that he would be forced to leave the prison service if a threatened transfer to Dublin or Portlaoise went ahead.

“I couldn’t bring up my family. There would be too many commitments,” he said.