Ms Caron McCaffrey:

A review of the protected disclosures policy for the Irish Prison Service has taken place and a revised policy was introduced in July 2018. The review was carried out to ensure that procedures regarding protected disclosures are up to date and in line with best practice and to take into account any lessons learned from protected disclosures received to date. An assessment undertaken with TII informed the review. Arising from the review, a number of new measures have been put in place in the protected disclosure process. They include independent professional advice for staff on the process and enhanced independent external assessment of disclosures including all notifications of penalisation. Employees making disclosures are now also provided with periodic and confidential feedback regarding assessment, investigation or review.

The committee has in the past expressed concern about the level of sick leave in the Prison Service. There are limited international comparators available to us as very few countries publish sick leave statistics for their prison services. However, from the figures available to us, the 2017 sick leave figure of 15.7 days per employee per year places the Irish Prison Service at the lower end of the scale when compared with other prison services. Comparable figures for 2017 show Northern Ireland reported a figure of 19.7 days, Denmark 21.9 days, Latvia 18.88 days and Slovenia 15.3 days per member of staff.

Prison staff work in an extremely challenging environment in which, on a daily basis, they face unique circumstances unlike most others in the public sector. Notwithstanding this, the Irish Prison Service is tackling the unacceptable level of sick leave we are currently experiencing in two ways - first, by providing staff with the best possible supports to target the work-related causes of sick leave and, second, through focused, structured management of all absences to identify and reduce absenteeism. The Irish Prison Service is committed to strengthening the support we provide for our staff. In addition to the employee assistance programme which has two national officers and over 40 locally appointed staff support officers, the supports in place for staff include an independent counselling service which we introduced in 2016. The service is available to all staff free of charge and provides staff with access to up to six counselling sessions for support covering a wide range of issues.

In 2019 the service will complete the introduction of the critical incident stress management model of support interventions for staff, which has been endorsed by the State Claims Agency. The model aims to minimise the emotional impact of critical incidents on staff, increase the resistance and resilience of staff to harmful stress and prevent the harmful effects on staff of such incidents by working with and supporting employees at the time of critical incidents.

I pay tribute to the employees of the Prison Service, many of whom work in a difficult and challenging environment to maintain a safe, secure and humane prison system which contributes to safer communities. Both the Secretary General and I will be happy to take any questions the committee has.