Oireachtas

£33m overtime bill for prison officers

More than £33 million was paid in overtime to prison officers last year, with the top payment of almost £50,000 in overtime alone…

Thu Mar 04 1999 - 00:00

More than £33 million was paid in overtime to prison officers last year, with the top payment of almost £50,000 in overtime alone going to an officer in Mountjoy prison.

According to figures released by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, a total of £33,820,000 was paid to prison officers in 1998. The top 10 overtime earners received between £48,550.43 and £37,491.92, excluding their basic salary.

Fine Gael's justice spokesman, Mr Jim Higgins, sharply criticised the Minister as "incompetent" for failing to curb overtime, which had jumped by more than £5 million on the 1997 figure of £28.2 million. In response to a written question from Mr Higgins, the Minister listed the top 10 overtime earners in the State's prisons. All 10 work in either Mountjoy or Portlaoise. Mr O'Donoghue admitted the situation was "certainly unsatisfactory" but it "has been unsatisfactory for years".

The top 10 overtime officers, whose payments relate to overtime and not to basic salary, are as follows: Mountjoy prison officer, £48,550.43; Mountjoy prison officer, £45,220.67; Portlaoise prison officer, £45,120.77; Portlaoise trades officer, £45,001.18; Mountjoy prison officer, £41,629.99; Mountjoy prison officer, £40,733.21; Mountjoy chief officer II, £40,135.33; Portlaoise asst chief officer, £37,930.28; Mountjoy chief officer II, £37,531.43; Portlaoise asst chief officer, £37,491.92

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The Minister said the overtime issue was being addressed on a day-to-day management basis and through the implementation of productivity measures with the Prison Officers' Association, and the work of a staffing review team.

"The aim is to reduce the overall level of overtime payments and the level of overtime earnings in individual cases, as it has to be recognised that the present situation, as disclosed by the figures just quoted, is certainly unsatisfactory and has been unsatisfactory for many years," Mr O'Donoghue said.

However, Mr Higgins said the situation was "farcical". He added that prison governors had already "expressed their concern at the manner in which prison overtime is administered and yet the Minister stands idly by, pouring millions of pounds into a system which has a very high failure rate while starving the probation and welfare service of resources".