Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand the Prison Service is confined to the public service schemes and I know it is looking for a review, but we still have these situations. The Irish Prison Service is trying to recruit people, but people being recruited into a uniformed service, whether the Garda or whatever, and we are speaking about the Irish Prison Service today, know that if they get stabbed in the course of their job, the chief medical officer in the Department of Health will not sign them out because they are capable of desk duties. They will run out of sick pay but the Prison Service states it can do nothing for them and cannot retire them on health grounds unless the chief medical officer states they are not fit for work. In the meantime they go off pay. The public service collectively is not looking after staff who have been seriously injured in the course of their work on behalf of the citizens. The witnesses get the point I am making. These people are being caught. Do the witnesses share my concern?