Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 1129: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to the damage being caused to family life as result of prison officers, formerly employed at Fort Mitchel Prison, Spike Island, being asked to rotate between Cork and Limerick prisons, regardless of the effects of this policy on family life. [1370/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I am aware of the issue referred to by the Deputy. The position is that former staff of Fort Mitchel Place of Detention have been temporarily assigned to both Cork and Limerick prisons since Fort Mitchel was closed on 10 February 2004. It has now become necessary to deploy those staff on a permanent basis in the context of the roll-out of the terms of the proposal for organisational change in the Prison Service, which was accepted by staff at ballot in August 2005, and in the context of the establishment of a dedicated prison service escort corps within the Prison Service which is an important element of the change programme.

The Deputy should be aware that the initial redeployment of the staff in question on a temporary basis was done in a manner which sought to minimise the disruption to the staff and their families. All of the staff were deployed within the Munster region, notwithstanding the demands of the service in other regions where there were pressing needs.

As regards the rotation of staff between the Prison Service escort corps regional base in Cork and the Limerick regional base of the corps, the position is that this is a temporary arrangement which was sought by the staff as an alternative to the preferred option of the Irish Prison Service, which was to assign eight former Fort Mitchel staff to the Prison Service escort corps regional base at Limerick. The arrangement, which was put in place with effect from 19 January 2006, involves eight staff from the Cork regional base of the escort corps reporting for duty to the Limerick regional base of the corps each day. The need for such rotation will diminish and eventually be eliminated over time through natural wastage and the assignment of the requisite number of staff to the Limerick regional base of the escort corps from elsewhere in the service. In recent days, the number on rotation has already decreased to seven.