Mr. Karl Dalton:

On behalf of the Prison Officers Association, I thank the committee for the opportunity to address it on the general scheme of the Bill. I am general secretary of the POA and I am accompanied by my colleague, Mr. Keaveney, deputy general secretary of the POA.

Due to the nature and composition of the proposed Bill, we obtained detailed legal advice on its contents. Our submission is based primarily on those advices. As outlined in our original cover note, our submission was presented subject to us seeking a meeting with the Department of Justice to clarify several issues, including the matter of the status of our members as civil servants and the impact of the general scheme of the Bill on their status. A meeting has yet to be confirmed but we are in agreement to meet on that matter. We respectfully request that the committee allow us to submit any additional issues should the need arise following that engagement. In our written submission, we raised several concerns relevant to the assurances regarding our members’ Civil Service status going forward. The IPS has outlined via the Department of Justice that the scheme will have no effect on the Civil Service status or terms and conditions of staff other than that they will become civil servants of the Government rather than officers of the Minister. The main issue is the impact of becoming civil servants of the Government rather than civil servants of the Minister. Clarity is required as to whether this change can impact on a range of existing collective agreements for our members and on the methodology for reaching such agreements going forward.

There are two main issues arising under the section dealing with the delegation of functions to the director general, including the power to dismiss. In the first instance, the proposed Bill gives the director general wide-ranging powers relating to the appointment of staff and fixing the terms and conditions of employment of such staff, their grades and the numbers of staff in each grade. This is a significant move away from the process that is currently in place and presents grave concerns for our membership. During the financial emergency, the parties entered an agreement which resulted in significant staff reductions and the introduction of massive workplace reform. Part of this process was to examine staff-to-management ratios. In recent times, the IPS has disproportionately increased management grades compared with front-line officer grades. In particular, there has been a 35% increase in HQ staff.

Second, in the wider Civil Service the power to dismiss rests with the Secretary General of the relevant Department. At present, there is opposition from the staff side to any proposal to further dilute this power. As such, we require clarification regarding the specific functions the director general can delegate to subordinate members of staff. Will the director general have the ability to delegate the power to suspend or dismiss staff?

There are other matters that may impact on our members. The main issue for our members is to obtain clarity regarding their current status compared with the new status. For example, what will be the impact on our members of the code of ethics being placed on a statutory basis? The Prison Service currently has a code of ethics for staff but this provision will put the code on a statutory basis. What will that mean for our members?