Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

While I will not belabour the point, as Deputy Howlin has noted, this is being used to blackmail prison officers. This had been threatened and the Minister is now delivering on that threat to ensure there will be no labour unrest among prison officers. Were there to be such unrest, I guarantee the Minister would introduce this provision as rapidly as he introduced the Garda Reserve after he secured its passage. He did so, despite having stated at the time that he had no intention of introducing it in the near future. Three months later, he did.

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