The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, will today seek approval from Cabinet for plans to close two of the State's prisons and place the management of two minimum security facilities "outside the prison service", writes Conor Lally.
The move follows the break-down of talks between the prison service and the Prison Officers' Association on plans to reduce overtime expenditure, which will top €64 million this year. The POA last night described the Minister's plans as "amazing", coming at a time when a new generation of violent criminals was emerging.
The Minister also wants to privatise the prison escort system, which accounts for around half of the prison service's overtime spending.
Mr McDowell plans to close Spike Island in Cork, and the Curragh Place of Detention in Kildare from January 1st. From that date the Irish Prison Service will no longer run Loughan House in Cavan, and Shelton Abbey in Wicklow, both minimum security facilities.
It is not clear who will run the two prisons but in the 1980s the Army and Garda were drafted in to cover for striking prison officers.
Staff at the four jails will be transferred to other prisons, greatly reducing the need for prison officers to work overtime. The 180 prisoners being detained in Spike Island and the Curragh will also be transferred.
A significant number will be sent to the Midlands Prison and Limerick Prison, where spare capacity is greatest.
The two closed jails will reopen, and responsibility for managing the two open prisons will be returned to the prison service, when agreement is reached on the overtime issue.
POA deputy general secretary Mr Eugene Dennehy said the prison service and Mr McDowell were pursuing an agenda of "closures and privatisation without consultation".
He said the prison service had refused to consider a proposal put forward last week by the POA which would have resulted in annual savings of €30 million, cutting the €64 million overtime budget by almost half.
"Throughout this [negotiation] process and indeed before this we were concerned that the prison service had difficulty with the idea of representation and the cursory rejection of our proposal now confirms this."
Mr McDowell has repeatedly warned the prison officers that expenditure on overtime is unsustainable. Last April the Minister imposed a 90-day deadline on the prison officers to reach agreement with the prison service on reducing overtime. He imposed a further 10-day deadline almost a fortnight ago, which expired on Sunday without any agreement.
The Department of Justice and the prison service wanted the prison officers to agree to work up to 360 hours in overtime every year in return for an additional €10,300 in salary.
The officers were also offered a one-off payment of €12,250, payable over three years. More than 99 per cent of the membership rejected that offer after a ballot last month.