Impasse in talks between Minister and POA

Talks in Dublin between the Minister for Justice and the Prison Officers Association (POA) have broken down without any progress on the dispute in relation to overtime pay and working conditions.

After the meeting yesterday, Michael McDowell said he had heard nothing from the prison officers' representatives which would allow him to hold back on a major cost-cutting reform package across the prison service.

The POA said aspects of Mr McDowell's reform package were retrograde. POA general secretary John Clinton said he and his officials had impressed on Mr McDowell that they wanted to find a "workable solution" to the current impasse in the talks.

He said the association would further discuss all issues relating to the dispute at its annual conference in Castlebar, Co Mayo, next week.

When asked if strike action or another ballot on the pay offer would be considered, he said: "We haven't ruled anything in or out." He described as "a very retrograde step" Mr McDowell's plans to permanently close two prisons and place the operation of another two outside the remit of the prison service. The Prison Officers Association was also opposed to the privatisation of prison escorts, as is also planned by Mr McDowell.

The Minister said the association and its members had known for a long time that these plans would come into effect if agreement on annualised hours could not be reached.

"The prison budget has been cannibalised by overtime for decades instead of being used to improve and modernise the prison system," Mr McDowell said. "That period is now over and we're not going back to it."

A pay deal offering officers a basic salary of between €48,000 and €70,000 and a once-off payment of €13,750 has been rejected by the State's 3,200 prison officers. They were being offered the package in exchange for working seven hours overtime a week.

The Government believed the deal would have reduced the prison service's near-€65 million overtime bill last year by about €25 million.