Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

The Governor of Mountjoy, John Lonergan, has been quoted in the newspapers as saying that the last thing the prison service wants is an industrial dispute. He spoke about the repercussions and the damage it would cause in the prison and to the lives and already difficult work of prison officers. We heard this morning that the prison staff will not get the benchmarking increases in the new year. We also heard about the proposal to close prisons, such as Spike Island which was given a large investment recently. There is no apparent reason why Spike Island should be closed. It seems there is a major crisis looming in the prison service. I call on the Leader to ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to come into the House to tell us what he is doing to ensure the prison service does not take industrial action and that issues, such as the overtime bill, are addressed in a way which is fair to prison officers and which recognises the difficult work they do.