Mr. John Clinton:

Yes. I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for extending the invitation to the Prison Officers Association to outline its position on the allowances paid to members of the association. The association currently represents 3,221 grades in the Irish Prison Service ranging from the grade of recruit prison officer up to and including the grade of deputy governor. It was established in 1947 as a staff association and received full trade union recognition in May 1988 under section 10 of the Trade Union Act 1941 authorising it to carry on negotiations on the fixing of wages or other conditions of employment. It is an affiliate member of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and, as a Civil Service trade union, operates through the agreed Civil Service conciliation and arbitration scheme.

A number of allowances are paid to members of the Irish Prison Service and all such allowances currently paid had to go through the agreed procedures set down in the Civil Service conciliation and arbitration scheme before sanction for payment was granted. The majority of allowances payable are in the nature of pay and pensionable and, therefore, are core pay.

The Prison Officers Association and its members have delivered significant reform in the Irish Prison Service in recent years and staff have received numerous awards, including the Taoiseach's Award. A major change programme was rolled out from July 2005 following lengthy negotiations facilitated by the Labour Relations Commission between management and staff and on foot of a report issued by the Civil Service Arbitration Board. Such was the magnitude of the change that the board commended both the Prison Officers Association and the Irish Prison Service for their participation in what no doubt had been long and difficult negotiations on the proposals for change. In reviewing this massive initiative at the 2006 Prison Officers Association annual conference the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform noted that both he and the union had come through a long and sometimes torturous process in our efforts to agree a better way forward for the Irish Prison Service. He also stated there could be little doubt that industrial relations in the service were in a better state, with management and staff using a partnership approach to overcome their difficulties.

This process of co-operation with a problem solving approach is continuing through our involvement with the Croke Park agreement. There has been ongoing intensive engagement between the parties on our commitment to the public service agreement and the specific measures set down to secure payroll savings of €21 million. A full in-depth review of all tasks has been undertaken at all prisons and places of detention, the building services division, the prison service escorting corps and the operational support group. These joint reviews have been carried out by a team comprising both management and staff representatives and arising from them, transformation reports have been completed and implemented at a number of locations. New rosters are being constructed and implemented at all locations and a 17% reduction has been achieved at senior manager level with, among other things, the introduction of campus working arrangements at three locations. An incentivised enhanced privilege scheme for prisoners is being implemented across the entire prison network which is based on best international practice. There has been the introduction of 140 prison administration and support officers through redeployment from the Civil Service, thus allowing fully trained prison officers to return to front-line duties. Agreement has been reached on a number of important policy documents, including the standard prison day, prisoner property, internal escorts, communications, etc. There has been the opening of new prison accommodation using a significantly reduced staffing model, for example, at Wheatfield Prison. There has been greater use of automation to allow the redeployment of officers to front-line duties. The Irish Prison Service has been operating at or below its emergency control figure for some time, that is, with 338 fewer staff as per the last sectoral report.