Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That does not address the point I am making. It is fine that an additional six months of sick leave on full pay is available to prison officers but I am talking about people who are long past that point. The extra concessionary months under the rules of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform are fine but I am talking about people who are facing the prospect of leaving the service. How does a person prove that his or her injuries were sustained on the job? The CMO might say to a prison officer that there is no way of knowing whether he or she had a back problem anyway. Do the witnesses understand the point I am making? It is all well and good to say that this is being looked at by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, to ask how long is a piece of string and to ask if it will ever happen, who will be covered going forward and so on. I am talking about current serving officers who have been injured at work and cannot continue to work. They do not want to be retired on the grounds of ill health without some recognition that their ill health is a direct result of injuries sustained at work. The Prison Service is their employer and it has a duty to deal with them rather than telling them to take their chances with the CICT.