John Whelan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this matter today. It is a matter of great urgency. I am particularly heartened to see the Minister for Justice and Equality here. The Minister has a reputation for being considerate, caring, courteous and credible,and I appeal to those attributes. I ask her to intervene personally, as the Minister responsible, in a festering dispute between the Irish Prison Service, IPS, and the Prison Officers’ Association, POA. The prison officers believe they are being backed into a corner and have no option but to take a stand and ballot for industrial action. I agree with the prison officers. They have given everything possible. They have made savings of €21 million, under the Croke Park agreement, which the Minister’s predecessor and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, can verify. Under the Haddington Road agreement they have made further verifiable savings of €11.5 million. They are not afraid of reform or change.

It is now, however, hard to distinguish in the prison system between who is serving the community, serving the country and serving time. Prison officers believe their health, safety and well-being are being put at risk by attempts to unilaterally introduce new work practices and changes without proper recourse to negotiation and reasonable, meaningful consultation with their representative body, the POA. There is a belief, which is not posturing, among the prison officers on the ground that there is an attempt by elements within the IPS to sideline and marginalise the POA so that it has no function or role in proper, adequate and reasonable negotiation for any changes. That is not acceptable.

Will the Minister call off the attack dogs within the IPS who are putting prison officers’ health and safety at risk by their attitude to what would normally be addressed through meaningful consultation and negotiation? There are security staff on the Luas wearing stab vests and equipment. At Heuston Station, which is a peaceful concourse, there are security staff with better equipment and stab vests than the prison officers have when dealing with serious criminals who are becoming increasingly violent and vicious. This is not acceptable but the industrial action which is looming in our prisons will be dangerous. The country does not need this. It is not a question of stab vests but of prison officers believing, not without foundation, that they are being stabbed in the back by elements within their own management who are putting their safety, well-being and welfare at risk, perhaps to further their own careers within the Department and the IPS.

This can be defused and solved if the Minister intervenes because all it requires is common sense and fair play to acknowledge and accept that the prison officers are involved daily in a very attritional, dangerous, difficult and challenging work environment. They do not need to be backed into a corner and for their job and stress to be added to by their own management, which has a duty of care and responsibility to ensure their health, safety and welfare but which, on the contrary, seems to be at odds with them and to be drawing the POA into confrontation. The POA has no choice in this instance but to ballot for strike action. I strongly urge the Minister to intervene and defuse this situation.