Mismanagement has caused a major shortfall in staffing levels at Irish prisons, it has been claimed.
Tony Power, the Prison Officers Association President, has lashed out at the lack of recruitment of jailers.
He said there was now “serious concerns” and these needed to be raised by members of the organisation.
Speaking at the group’s annual conference in Sligo, Mr Power said: “Some prisons had staffing shortfalls as high as 40 or 50 a day due to the mismanagement of the Additional Hours system.
“In the Midlands for example, due to this mismanagement, there have been days when the prison operated fully with less than 60% of the agreed staffing levels on duty. This bad planning is surely putting both staff and prisoners at risk.”
“A Regime Management Plan, much lauded by the former Director General, was to be put in place in each prison to ensure staff and prisoner safety but alas this Regime Management Plan was and remains nonexistent in most institutions.”
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Mr Power said that a recruitment campaign will not solve the problem as it will not meet the required level of staff needed to maintain Irish prisons.
He said: “The Irish Prison Service recently began another recruitment campaign for Recruit Prison Officers and whilst the POA welcome any recruitment that will help us achieve something close to the agreed Prison Officer numbers in every prison I must advise caution.
"When (Justice) Minister Flanagan spoke in March this year at the launch of that particular Recruitment Campaign, he lauded the fact that 216 recruit Prison Officers would help to bring the overall staffing compliment of the Irish Prison Service close to full strength.
“This would be the case except that neither the Minister or the Irish Prison Service have factored in the vast number of prison staff that can and are retiring, having completed their service.
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“The shortfall of staff on the floor in our prisons - and I emphasise ON THE FLOOR as there never seems to be a shortfall of managers - has been and will continue to be a matter of grave concern to the Prison Officers Association.”
Mr Power said that the POA has been raising this issue for years but nothing has been done about it.
He added: “This problem is not new. At our Annual Delegate Conference in 2017 my predecessor Stephen Delaney spoke about staffing levels and asked the then Minister Ms Frances Fitzgerald to fight for the Prison Service. She failed to do so.
“At last year’s Conference my predecessor once again spoke about staffing levels and the long awaited recruitment drive. The net result is that we have operated with unacceptably low staffing levels over the past 12 months and this must be addressed."
