The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue, has invited IMPACT to urgent talks this morning in an effort to avert a work-to-rule in the probation service. However, an IMPACT official, Mr Peter Nolan, has said the action by 150 members in the service will go ahead.
The union is seeking 75 extra posts, in line with a Government commissioned report. Mr Nolan welcomed Mr O'Donoghue's invitation to talks at 10 a.m. but added that the action would proceed, as previous agreements to defer action had not produced any offer from the Government.
The work-to-rule is expected to disrupt the work of the courts and sentence review groups, as well as leaving about 2,000 offenders unsupervised. However, Mr Nolan said that cases would be prioritised to ensure that people most at risk were catered for.
A spokesman for Mr O'Donoghue expressed confidence last night that progress would be made at today's meeting. He said the Minister intended making serious proposals to the union. He hoped that disruption to the probation and welfare service would be brief as a result of the Minister's initiative.
The union deferred industrial action last February at Mr O'Donoghue's request. On that occasion the Minister had promised to discuss the financial aspects of the problem with the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, and report back by early April. Mr O'Donoghue had not come back, Mr Nolan said.
He added that the cost of expanding the service would be £2.5 million, compared to the £1 billion committed to building new prison places. During the work-to-rule probation officers will reduce their case loads from between 60 and 80 to 30.