Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes. It is a very important job and this must be reflected in the pay and conditions of employment. We would agree that it is a stressful role with huge demands which people may well find hard to leave behind at the end of the day. I have no wish to refute any of that. I am merely interested in any available pay comparisons with other countries in the OECD or the European Union.

There are comparisons in the type of work performed. There might be differences in the hours worked or other things but one can still work out whether that is acceptable average pay for a prison officer. That is work we really need to do, even if it is just to defend the integrity of the pay system so that it stands up. We want to be able to say it is fair because we have checked it out with these 12 other countries that are in some way comparable. We have taken in the differences that might apply to the different systems, averaged that out and found that it does stand up.