Mr. John Clinton:

There has been significant progress to date in the Irish Prison Service under the terms of the agreement against a background of an increasing prisoner population and a decrease in staff numbers. Furthermore, to date, there has been no requirement to utilise any of the third party mechanisms provided for under the terms of the agreement in the case of the service. The Prison Officers Association and its members have delivered everything asked of them under the terms of the agreement. All progress reports to date from the sectoral group to the implementation body verify this. This has had a significant impact on the running of the service, for example, the opening of a new accommodation block at Wheatfield Prison was made possible owing to the implementation of new regimes brought about by the public service agreement.

The public service agreement also provides that pay will not be cut in exchange for co­operation with the modernisation and change agenda which is being delivered in the Irish Prison Service. Therefore, pay should not be cut and that includes allowances. No distinction should be made regarding allowances that are part of basic or core pay. That is especially the case, given the particular circumstances that apply to allowances in the service and the way they have evolved historically to restrict knock-on pay claims. Furthermore, the service and the Prison Officers Association agreed, as part of the modernisation and change programme for the service, that we would conduct a review of all allowances on a cost neutral basis with a view to aligning the payment of allowances with the strategic priorities of the service. Many of the allowances come under the same heading and are paid for carrying out different tasks. For example, the assistant industrial supervisor, AIS, allowance, an allowance payable in the industrial area, can be paid to a person for their carpentry, catering or metal work skills, while the class 2 allowance is paid to officers who work in areas such as at the main gate of a prison or the prison tuck shop.

The allowances paid in the Irish Prison Service fall mainly within the following categories. The pensionable operational allowance forms part of the basic pay of prison staff. It is 8% of basic pay payable to all grades. This was the amount awarded by the Civil Service Arbitration Board set out in the July 2005 proposal for organisational change agreement. This agreement introduced immediate efficiencies into the operation of the service, with major changes to work practices and working conditions which have been responsible for an annual saving since 2005 of more than €30 million achieved through the elimination of overtime working. Additional hours bands have operated in the service since the introduction of the proposal for organisational change agreement in July 2005 which eliminated the need for overtime working. There are three additional hours bands - 112, 240 and 360 hours. On attendances allowances, payments made in the service under this heading are not allowances but payments made for attendance in respect of core hours of duty. The service operates on a 24 hour, seven day a week basis and some level of staffing is required at night and on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.

Under the Croke Park agreement, specific to the Irish Prison Service, there is an ongoing in-depth transformation review, examining in detail all current structural and operational arrangements which will allow for prisons to operate in the most effective and efficient manner by the introduction of, among other things, enhanced regimes which will allow, where feasible, reduced staffing levels, freeing up staff to open new areas.

Rent allowance has long been accepted as part of basic pay. Therefore, given this position, it was agreed as part of the terms of Agreed Report 5/97, Programme for Competitiveness and Work, that this allowance would be pensionable for members of the Irish Prison Service serving on or after 1 January 1994.

Industrial area allowances are paid to prison grades who work in the various work and training areas of the prisons, where constructive accredited training is provided to prisoners. All staff appointed to these grades are appointed following national merit-based competitions and staff require specific skill sets to carry out these enhanced roles and functions on which work and training programmes are dependent.

Class 2 allowances are paid in the Irish Prison Service on the basis that the officeholder is performing duties deemed to be over and above those expected from a basic grade prison officer. For example, the officer in charge of the school is responsible for all aspects of security within his or her area. He or she is required to maintain attendance records and ensure prisoners get access to the school when required, and is responsible for arranging interviews for new committals who want to engage in and have access to educational facilities.

Acting-up allowances are paid in respect of officers taking up additional duties or a higher duty. These include the acting-up allowance, the substitution allowance and the in-charge-of-court allowance. The acting-up allowance is paid to a person who carries out the duties of a higher officeholder. For example, the assistant chief officer acting up to the grade of chief officer, normally for a period longer than 30 days. This normally only happens when it is essential for the maintenance of the chain of command, essential for the care and management of prisoners or essential to the security of the prison. Some posts may also be required by statute.

With regard to the environmental allowance in Portlaoise Prison, the basis for this allowance related to the presence of subversive prisoners in Portlaoise and Limerick prisons, which created a particularly tense environment in these prisons for prison officers and for their families in their private lives. While the security status of Limerick Prison changed in recent years, Portlaoise Prison remains the country's only committal prison for the Special Criminal Court and, as such, remains the State's high security prison. The purpose of the Army presence at Portlaoise Prison is to protect the security of the State. To this end, military posts are situated throughout the prison and manned on a 24-7 basis by armed soldiers. The environmental allowance is under review as a result of a claim brought by the official side to the departmental council conciliation and arbitration scheme in January 2010 prior to the commencement of the Public Service Agreement 2010-2014.

Allowances in the medical area include the hospital or medical orderly allowance, which was paid for the role of carrying out specific specialist medical duties relating to the delivery of medical support to prisoners and specialist providers. The terms of Agreed Report 5/97, Programme for Competitiveness and Work, provided for the introduction of a nursing service in the Irish Prison Service to discharge professional health care duties, and on entering the Irish Prison Service nurse officers were awarded the medical allowance. This allowance was increased for the nurse officer grade by the public service benchmarking body in June 2002.

The plain clothes allowance is payable to prison officers who are obliged to wear civilian attire on certain duties, for example, inpatient or outpatient hospital escorts, temporary release escorts, certain court escorts, and those working in open or semi-open centres.

Historically, the above allowances evolved to restrict knock-on pay claims, for example, the rent allowance and the operational allowance, or the allowance was granted to a specific individual grade or for a specific role that was carried out. The aforementioned payments were clearly paid in the form of an allowance to control the escalation of payments, particularly during the periods of national wage agreements. As stated, all allowances payable in the Irish Prison Service first had to go through the agreed procedures set down in the Civil Service conciliation and arbitration scheme before sanction for payment was granted.

The allowance system in the Irish Prison Service is largely driven by a necessity to reward members of the Irish Prison Service for working long and unsocial hours, as the Irish Prison Service operates on a 24-7 basis, or for utilising specific skill sets over and above those required of the basic grade prison officer which are essential for the running and successful outcome of work and training programs. These allowances form part of the basic pay of prison grades and are something that our members cannot do without given the difficult financial circumstances many now find themselves in.

I thank the committee for giving the Prison Officers Association the opportunity to put forward the position of its members in respect of their pay and allowances. I hope this statement was helpful to the committee. I thank the Chairman and members.