Talks between the Prison Officers' Association (POA) and the Irish Prison Service on the overtime payments dispute have ended without agreement at the Labour Relations Commission.
Both sides left the LRC with no plans in place for further talks, bringing the prospect of industrial action a step closer.
The POA blamed Prison Service management for collapsing the talks. "The unwillingness of management to move forward from a document, which had been rejected by 99.4% of our members, regrettably led to the collapse of talks," a spokesman said.
"The Prison Officers' Association entered into these discussions with every intention of finding a solution. Clearly management had other intentions and their decision to close prisons while talks were ongoing confirms this," he added.
However, a Prison Service spokesman insisted the talks had not broken down, but had been "adjourned indefinitely due to the gap between the two sides".
Discussions were halted last Thursday after the POA accused the Prison Service of withdrawing from concessions it was willing to grant.
The POA informed members last Friday that significant progress had been made in the talks last Wednesday. But the following morning the Prison Service rowed back on many of these points leading to the halting of the talks.
At dispute is a change in overtime payments for prison officers. The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell wants to halve the €64 million annual cost of overtime by prison officers. He has offered prison officers an average pay rise of €10,300 each, in exchange for working up to 360 hours overtime per year.
Prison officers have also been offered a one-off payment of more than €12,000. But prison officers are worried that under the new arrangements they could be asked to work at short notice.
Because the dispute has not been resolved Mr McDowell has decided to close two prisons. The Curragh closed last week. Its 80 prisoners have been transferred to Portlaoise.
Spike Island prison, Cork, will close on February 9th, with inmates being transferred to St Patrick's Institution, Dublin and Limerick prison.