The main body dealing with Irish prisoners overseas has been thrown into disarray following a decision by its staff and board to leave.
Faced with the intention of the Catholic bishops to move its operations from Dublin to Maynooth, the staff and executive committee of the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas have decided to resign, retire or take redundancy.
The decision to "stand down" follows a long campaign internally against the bishops' plan. Staff said they would be unable to meet the needs of the families of prisoners, many of them from Dublin, if they had to move to Maynooth.
Their departure is designed to "facilitate" the Church's review of the management structures of the various commissions and agencies that operate under its aegis. Up to 40 of these bodies are being moved to the Co Kildare town by Easter as part of this restructuring. They include the aid agency Trócaire, the pregnancy advice centre Cura, and the Irish Commissino for Justice and Peace.
The administrator of the bishops' commissions could not be contacted yesterday about the move. The bishops are currently in Brussels as guests of the European Commission and the European Parliament.
The church is pressing ahead with the move of the ICPO to Maynooth, despite an offer by the probation and welfare service of the Department of Justice to take over funding of the prisoners' commission.
It is understood the Department offered a six-figure annual sum to provide for the expansion of its work, which has been run on a shoestring for many years.
As part of the deal, the body would have been reconstituted as a limited company, with a board of management including one representative from the Department. It would have to produce audited accounts and issue an annual report.
The proposal, which represented a doubling of funding, enjoyed the support of the staff and management committee. However, the bishops decided that the offer was "not appropriate to requirements" within the current restructuring.
Sources say the ICPO will continue to exist, but under a "different model of service". In recent years, its workload has been increasing, despite releases under the Good Friday agreement.
The administrator, Ms Nuala Kelly, who is also leaving, said: "We look forward to the bishops continuing and enhancing the service as they have promised."
Those working with prisoners hope the State might move in to fill the gap in provision, as happens in Holland and other European states.
Among those leaving are the four staff of the Parnell Square office in Dublin and a number of full-time volunteers. An office in London will remain open.
The ICPO, which was set up in 1985, grew out of the campaigns against miscarriages of justice against Irish people in Britain. Among those involved at the start were Sister Sarah Clarke, who died earlier this month, Bishop Éamonn Casey and Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich.
Ms Annie Maguire, who was wrongly imprisoned on explosives charges in 1974, was a speaker at its first public meeting in the Mansion House.
For 13 years it survived on funding from the church, but in recent years it has received grant aid from the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Social, Community and Family Affairs.
At present, about 1,200 Irish people are serving prison sentences overseas.
