I want to thank you, Mr. President, for the kind invitation of the Prison Officers Association to address their 56th Annual Conference in Galway as their guest.
This is the first occasion for me to address the delegates of the Association's branches and I do so at a time when we face profound change in the affairs of the Prison Service and in the affairs of the Irish State, not least in an era of new economic realities.
There is no room or reason to avoid facing up to new and testing challenges which now confront us.
Perhaps it is as well that we should all draw to mind the economic context in which these changes and challenges must be addressed. We have recently passed through a period of huge economic growth and the Exchequer has arrived in quite different territory. Growth in public spending has, over the last 3 years, abated from 21% to 14.6% and subsequently to 5.7% in this calendar year.
Exchequer receipts have undergone a similar tightening. The Government has decided that the various Departments of State and the various agencies and services which come under the aegis of those Departments must live strictly within a financial envelope provided for them at budget time. The Government adopted this policy not for the sake of making life difficult for public sector employees or anybody else, but simply because it had become an economic necessity against the background where demand for services was rising and the revenue needed to pay for them was falling.
In relation to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, and in relation to the Prison Service itself, the consequences of that solemn decision made by Government are that there will be no - absolutely no additional resources provided by way of supplementary estimate, unlike in previous years when the provision of supplementary resources in the course of any given financial year was common place. It is my duty, as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, to deliver on that decision and I am confidently expected by my Cabinet colleagues to do so. In doing so, I have not merely the full authority but the explicit backing of my colleagues in Government.
This means that you and I must now focus our immediate attention on a central issue which affects us all and which stands in the way of delivering on what the people expect and demand from us, namely, the provision of an effective and efficient Prison Service, within the resources available to us.
One of the key issues, in this context, is how to address the long standing question of the level of overtime working in the Prison Service.
The Prison Service has for many years been operating with an ever growing dependence on overtime working. In the 6 years, 1997 to 2002 inclusive, overtime has risen fromEuro36 .6 million to Euro59.3 million - an increase of 62%.
That dependence on overtime is indefensible not only from the point of view of the average men and women in the street, but from the point of view of your members. I know that the general public and the Government look to me and to you to end rather than defend the indefensible.
All other expenditure items in the Prison Service budget are being dictated by this overtime issue. Resources needed for training, capital programmes, rehabilitation programmes, education, and modernisation are being cannibalized to feed the insatiable and indefensible overtime budget. The reliance on overtime is an equally voracious consumer of the hours which most, if not all, of your members would prefer to spend on family life, on leisure, on self development and on personal fulfillment. Although a tiny handful of your members may have settled for an overtime culture and may be content with things as they are, I believe that the great majority of Prison Officers not merely want the overtime dependence culture to end; but they know it is unsustainable from a personal, organisational or economic point of view. They know it must come to an end.
From the point of view of Prison Officers, from the point of view of the service itself, from the point of view of management and Government, and, most importantly, from the point of view of the community as a whole, we now have reached an appointment with reality.
This year's capital programme for the Prison Service, unfortunately, has been effectively suspended in order to fund overtime. But even that very dubious funding would not suffice for the rest of the year. I cannot, and will not, go down the path of allowing the Irish Prison Service to decay for the want of a capital programme in order to attempt unsuccessfully to shore up the status quo on overtime. I cannot get capital or other resources from somewhere else within the Exchequer pool. Given the demands elsewhere on the public purse, the simple reality is that there is no "somewhere else", no hidden treasure chest from which I can draw additional public resources for capital or any other purpose.
The issue, therefore, is not whether you and I can agree to end the overtime dependence. The issue is not even when it must be done - because it must be done immediately. The issue, very simply, is whether we can agree on how it will be done.
The Partnership approach has brought us all to the point where the issues have become very clear. In the last few years we have had the Prison Service Cost Review Group report of 1997. That report gave rise to a 2 year analysis of current working practices by the Staffing and Operations Review Team (better known as SORT). That was, in turn, followed by the Strategic Effectiveness Programme (otherwise known as STEP) which was a joint study of how the SORT agenda could be implemented without the need for overtime-working. Now that we have "sorted" out the issues and identified the "steps" that must be taken, the final and next stage becomes equally apparent. Management has put together a framework proposal which the Director General will present to the executive of the Prison Officers Association and immediately thereafter to the membership of the Association, by the end of next week.
The Director General's document will set out in broad terms a range of management objectives and the kind of benefits which management is prepared to negotiate with you in order to achieve those objectives. I do not believe that you will find any surprises in the document when it is presented. This is not the forum to get into fine detail or negotiation, but I can give you an indication of the principal features of the proposal.
In the first instance, I can tell you that the proposal involves the elimination of overtime working through the introduction of an annualised hours system of attendance based on the recommendations contained in the SORT reports. The system envisages staff contracting to work certain levels of additional hours which will be paid for whether or not they are required to be worked. The proposal also involves the payment of lump sums to staff subject to the delivery of specific commitments. It will be necessary to agree new rosters to accommodate the system and I can tell you that every effort will be made to retain those elements of the present system which are family friendly in nature.
There are other proposals in relation to the organisation and structure of the service which I do not propose to go into here.
The framework proposal must be fully considered and agreed within the next three months. By the end of July, a 90 day process of consideration and decision must conclude - one way or the other. By then, money and time will have run out. By the beginning of September, I have to be in a position to implement what we have agreed in the meantime or, if no agreement has been reached, to act by myself to address what will by then have become an unavoidable and critical imperative. I will have no choice in the matter because, as I've said to you, the money that would be required to maintain the status quo will simply not be there.
My strong preference is that there will be agreement between the Association and the Prison Service management and I will commit any amount of personal time and energy to securing that agreement. I will expect that everybody else will address the issue in that spirit. I understand that in the past it may well have been true that there was some perceived benefit in tactical or strategic delay. But that era is now past. Delay is not an option in terms of tactics or strategy. The issues that confront us must be addressed now.
I know that some will say that three months (or 90 days) is a tight time frame for discussions of this kind. But the process has been ongoing, in its different stages, for six years now. Our responses must measure up not merely in terms of time but also in terms of intensity. Delivery must replace deliberation; analysis must give way to action. This is not because the Government or anybody else, including myself, have suddenly become impatient.
Some may say that we've heard the hair shirt speeches before and that when the chips are down, the resources will be found somewhere or other. That kind of thinking I assure you amounts to a grave miscalculation. The Government has already demonstrated that it is deadly serious about the requirement that public service costs must remain within the envelopes that have been set for all of us this year.
I believe that the next three months gives this Association a unique opportunity - an opportunity that will not come again in all probability - to play a major and constructive role in shaping the future of the Service.
I urge the Association to grasp that opportunity with both hands and not to let the future of this Service be determined by a process which has gone beyond your grasp.
I spoke earlier of the fact that this year's Capital Budget will be largely cannibalised by the overtime issue. I hope that you will agree with me that such an outcome is not sustainable. The Prison Service needs capital expenditure. If I had to secure capital investment from outside Exchequer resources I would consider doing so. But nobody should be in any doubt that resorting to private capital investment in the Prison Service would also bring with it major changes right across the provision of prison services for the Irish community. Using Exchequer capital to postpone immediate decisions on overtime is, therefore, neither a short-term nor a long-term option for any of us. Nor do I believe it is in the interests of the members of this Association to attempt to do so.
I have already mentioned the difficulties that we face in relation to capital projects this year. I am as anxious as no doubt all of you are to get over these difficulties so that the prison estate will continue to be developed in the years ahead.
Despite our current financial problems there are a number of positive developments to report in a number of areas. Work on the Portlaoise redevelopment, consisting of the construction of a new gate lock and visitors centre, has commenced. Replacement of the Army accommodation with a new block is almost finished. This will afford greater scope in the replacement of the 'C' and 'D2' wings which are scheduled to commence once the current work is completed.
In Limerick, the new block and front gate refurbishment project is at a very advanced stage and should be available for use in early Autumn. This will provide over 60 additional spaces.
In Wheatfield, a new modern laundry, metal and paint shop is expected to be completed in September. This will provide full-time work for 70 offenders. I am examining the potential commercial use of this facility to provide additional prisoner work.
Work is now complete on the new education unit in Cloverhill which will provide enhanced recreational and educational facilities in the Remand Prison.
Mountjoy is overdue major reconstruction or development. However, I have, in terms of overall costs, to reassess existing redevelopment proposals. I hope to come to a firm strategic decision on the Mountjoy Prison Campus in the near future.
Work on the development of St. Patrick's, involving the construction of extra facilities for young offenders, is complete and the "fit out" is now underway.
Another issue which has implications for capital expenditure in the future is the issue of video conferencing. I am convinced of the potential of video conferencing to approve the efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system with particular reference to the operation of the Courts and Prison Services. Prisoner escorts, for instance, place a huge burden on the Service which could be alleviated through the use of video link remand hearings. In addition, a properly established video network would greatly assist with the provision of professional visits and family visits for prisoners. Work in this area is advancing well under a Committee chaired by Mrs. Justice Denham.
Yesterday I visited Cork Prison where I was very favourably impressed by the strong team spirit shown by staff and management in keeping that prison drug free. I intend to step up our battle to keep drugs out of Irish prisons. I hope that the SORT/STEP process will, when implemented, release the badly-needed resources to develop Cork Prison in accordance with the ambitious development plan that has been put in place on foot of an in-depth consultation process between management and staff.
I want to assure you that although I have concentrated in the course of these remarks on some of the major problems that confront us both in relation to the Prison Service, there are many, many areas of positive achievement. The Prison Service is a function of Government which must be carried out and provided in a fully professional and modern way. It must not become a backwater or a neglected and obsolete corner of the Irish State. On the contrary, I envisage a service which will be not merely effective and efficient from the point of view of the community but a good place in which to work and deliver professional standards for everyone involved in the Prison Service team.
We live in a period, as I have mentioned earlier, of decision and change. I want that period to be positive and constructive. I want to do the business with you rather than with others. I want to modernise the fabric of the Prison Service. I want your workplaces to improve greatly. I want industrial relations that are positive and mature - rather than confrontational or destructive. I want to replace attrition with achievement. I want to give your members back their own time so they can enjoy a good way of life based on the delivery to the State of a truly professional service.
Although this is our first encounter of this type, I think you know enough about me and what I have said and done and committed myself to achieving to know that I mean business. The question the public is asking is whether this association is up for doing business. I have every confidence that you are, and that we can do business together.
Thank you. |
