Mr. Brian Purcell:

What we had prior to 2005 was an ad hoc system. Overtime was discretionary in the sense that if there was a need for additional officers to be in place in a particular prison at a particular time, a call had to be made. It is not an easy operational call to make. A governor might be informed, for example, that growing tension on a particular wing is pointing to the likelihood of a heave or other disciplinary incident. I do not need to explain the risk involved in such a scenario, where the governor must decide whether the need to bring in additional staff outweighs the corresponding increase in the overtime bill. In a normal public service setting a shortfall in staffing might lead to a temporary delay in the processing of applications or something like that. On the other hand, if something goes wrong in a prison setting, it can go very wrong. Difficult calls have to be made in these circumstances.