Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 25 Nov 2003

Vol. 575 No. 3

Written Answers. - Prison Staff.

John Deasy

Question:

287 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the proposals he has for the redeployment of 100 staff and their families from Fort Mitchel Prison; if they will be absorbed into Cork Prison; if not, the locations he proposes to transfer them to; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28148/03]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. McDowell)

I draw the Deputy's attention to Questions Nos. 407, 409 and 421 that I replied to on 18 November and to the Adjournment Debate on 12 November on the plans to accommodate the population of Fort Mitchel should it close.

On 11 November the Government approved the progressive implementation, from 1 January 2004, of a number of measures in the event of failure to reach agreement with the Prison Officers' Association on the proposed change agenda aimed at eliminating overtime payments and reducing other costs in the Prison Service. These measures included the mothballing of the Fort Mitchel and Curragh Place of Detention.

In my response on 18 November I made it clear that I have no desire to close or mothball the institutions at Fort Mitchel or the Curragh. These are actions that were approved by the Government on the basis that the counter proposal submitted by the POA on 7 November was unrealistic. Its proposal did not address the core problem of escalating overtime costs in the Prison Service. It abandoned the concept of annualised hours that both sides had agreed long ago presented the best prospect for dealing with the overtime problem for once and for all. The central feature of the POA proposal was a demand for an increase in basic pay that is totally at variance with the terms of Sustaining Progress and benchmarking coupled with retention of the present discredited prison overtime system.

I want the POA to agree to a reasonable and sustainable cost structure for the continued operation by them of our prisons and the open centres. I want to move forward on the basis of consensus. If that proves to be impossible to achieve I will proceed, as soon as possible, with arrangements for the alternative management of the open centres and the mothballing of Fort Mitchel and the Curragh Places of Detention. In line with existing arrangements regarding the transfer of staff within the Prison Service, I will arrange for the transfer of prison officers from these locations to places to which prisoners from these institutions have been transferred and to institutions where the additional staff would allow the amount of overtime required to be worked to be effectively reduced. Pending the outcome of further talks with the POA, I am not in a position to be more specific on the question of transferring staff from these institutions.

Last Thursday, 20 November, I met the POA. I found our meeting useful and hope that progress may yet be made on the proposals put forward by the official side. My position remains the same. In the absence of an agreed way forward before 1 January 2004 the Government decision of 11 November will be implemented.