Prison officers took an average of more than 26 sick days each last year, according to a report published this evening.
The Comptroller and Auditor General's (C&AG) annual report found that 82,580 sick days were recorded in the State's prisons last year despite the introduction in February 2006 of a new scheme to cut high levels of overtime.
In 2002 the figure was 60,544, when the average annual rate of sick days was 19.97 per officer. However, the report points out that sick days recorded also include rest days falling within a period of sick leave.
The number of sick days varied across the country, with an average of 40.58 days per officer in Cork, 39.79 in Mountjoy women's prison and 11.33 in Loughan House, Co Cavan.
The largest increase since 2002 occurred in 2003 and 2004 when sick days jumped by 25 per cent. The report finds that this may have been in part due to efforts by prison authorities to cut down on widespread use of overtime by staff.
"Tensions were high, and staff were being conditioned to the impending change," the report states. "The standard sick leave regulations were followed, and available sanctions continued to be used, but it was considered that from a 'political' point of view the time was not right for a concentrated crack down on sick leave."
A deal was struck in August 2005 between the Irish Prison Service, the Prison Officers' Association, with assistance from the Labour Relations Commission and the Civil Service Arbitration Board.
It was operational in all prisons by February 2006 and resulted in a major change to working practices in the Prison Service.
The deal aims to bring to an end the overtime culture among prison staff. Overtime working, which peaked at 2.1 million hours at a cost of €59.3m in 2002, has now been replaced with the new additional hours attendance system.
Staff are now contracted for a defined number of additional hours that cannot be exceeded in any year. It was expected the new system would see a 33 per cent reduction in the number of sick days being taken.
Sick leave statistics for the four-month period of January to April of this year show total sick days have fallen to 22,765 from the equivalent 2006 figure of 24,893. The average sick days per officer for those four months has fallen from 7.99 to 7.17
The Prison Service told the C&AG that the full effect of the new annualised hours system would not become apparent until the end of the second year of operation in February 2008.
