Prison officer deadline passes

A 90-day deadline on cutting overtime, issued by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, to prison officers, has passed with both sides no closer to resolving the contentious issue.

While talks between the prison officers, the Department and the Irish Prison Services are expected to resume before the end of August, some sources believe it may take until the end of the year before agreement is reached, and maybe much longer.

Many of the officials who have been involved in the overtime negotiations in recent months are currently on holidays.

Two weeks ago, the Department of Justice offered an annualised hours package to the prison officers, which has been rejected. Under the offer, prison officers were to be paid an extra €7,000 if they agreed to work a maximum of 300 hours of overtime per year.

The money was to be paid to officers even if they did not work the extra hours. Any officer who worked more than 300 hours overtime was to be given time off in lieu.

Prison officers' overtime increased by 62 per cent between 1997 and 2002, from €36.6 million to €59.3 million.

At the Prison Officers' Association (POA) annual conference in Galway at the beginning of May, Mr McDowell said he was giving the POA 90 days to sort out the issue of overtime.

One source last night said the mood among the State's 3,200 prison officers was still one of anger.