With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 42 and 43 together.
The conditions of service of prison officers are matters provided for in a scheme of conciliation and arbitration established in 1955. In 1962 agreement was reached at a conciliation council meeting for the consolidation of rent allowances with pay, it being a proviso that officers who were provided with living quarters would pay a rental of £1 per week. This arrangement appears to have been accepted by the prison officers' association who have never asked for a change.
New quarters with modern amenities have recently been provided in Mountjoy Male Prison for 29 of the staff who live in.
It is a condition of appointment to the prison service in the interests of security, that unmarried staff may be required to live within the prison.