Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Let us say the ill health is a direct result of injuries suffered on the job. I am not referring to an officer retiring on the basis of general ill health but on the basis of injuries suffered by that officer in the course of his or her work which renders the officer incapable of performing the full duties of the role. Can the CMO retire such an officer on ill health grounds or is there a different mechanism when the ill health is the result of injuries sustained on the job? If a prison officer is assaulted on the job and he or she can never work again, it is not right that he or she should be retired on the grounds of ill health by the CMO. The Prison Service must make it clear that such an officer is retiring because he or she is not capable of doing the job having been injured on duty. The CMO will probably not take that second step so that the person who is injured while on duty is just being retired on the grounds of ill health but that ill health is a direct result of the performance of his or her daily duties within the Prison Service. Some people feel that they are being trapped in that space.