Parliamentary Question: Prison Service Sick Leave

15th October 2003

61. Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the steps he plans to take to redress the high level of sick leave as identified by the Comptroller and Auditor General among prison officers. [23503/03]

Mr. McDowell: I welcome the publication of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on the management of sick leave in prisons. While the rostered nature of Prison Service employment poses difficulties in comparing sick absence levels of prison staff with those of other civil servants and high levels of sick absence are also a feature of prison service employment in other countries, notably the United Kingdom, I am determined to take decisive steps to address the problem of high sick leave absence levels in the Prison Service.

There is evidence that a small number of prison officers - I make no slur against the body of prison officers - contribute disproportionately to the overall level of sick leave. Where the actual number of absences is low, this derives, in some cases, from the serious nature of an officer's illness. Where high sick leave levels derive from a high number of absences, however, there are more grounds to suspect that an officer is abusing sick leave arrangements.

As indicated in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report, the Prison Service adopts a systematic approach to reviewing sick leave absence records of staff. During 2001 and 2002 this approach had to be put on hold while an officer sought a judicial review in the High Court of the decision of the Prison Service to withdraw the privilege of sick leave with pay in his case. The outcome of this review, in December 2002, upheld the approach of the Prison Service and has enabled it to reinstate its systematic approach. Already this effort is bearing fruit in terms of reduced sick absence levels in a number of prisons where staff absence records have been reviewed.

Even with this systematic review of staff absences, however, I acknowledge that further steps must be taken to address this issue and ensure that absence levels do not begin to drift back up to the levels of recent years, as highlighted by the Comptroller and Auditor General in his report. The guaranteed hours procedure, which I have proposed to introduce in place of overtime, will have the effect, on an annual hours basis, of offering less of an incentive for the minority of prison officers who are seriously abusing the current system to attempt to continue to do so. The package on the table will address, in large measure, the temptation for a small minority of prison officers in the past to greatly abuse the current sick leave arrangements.

Mr. Deasy: Members will agree that the figures on sick leave in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General are staggering. The report found that €55 million was spent on prison officers' overtime in 2002, while officers took more than 60,000 days sick leave, an average of around 19 days each in 2002. Cork Prison recorded double the national average while the figure for Arbour Hill was well below average. The Comptroller and Auditor General asked whether specific institutional or management factors at work in Arbour Hill contributed to the prison's relatively low rate of sick leave. He also noted that the system employed to record sick leave was deficient.

The cost of sick leave in 2001 was €8.6 million, twice the Civil Service average. This massive sum, €16 million or €17 million over four years, is a terrible waste of money. I reiterate my earlier calculation that €20 million would cover the cost of recruiting and training 300 to 400 gardaí.

Given that the Government squandered the resources available for the area of criminal justice during the past six or seven years and the Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrats parties allowed the current position to develop, responsibility for this matter must lie with the Minister. He talks a great deal inside and outside the Chamber and twice today stated he would take decisive action with regard to prison officers. We will see what this entails given that the Government is responsible for the current mess in which resources are not available to invest in criminal justice.

Mr. McDowell: I welcome the support of the Deputy for the steps I am taking. I am glad at least one party is nailing its colours firmly to the mast and agreeing that I must tackle this matter. If it comes to a crunch, I will expect his party to follow through with its support.

With regard to the €55 million spent on prison officers' overtime, it should be borne in mind that the figure is distributed among 3,300 staff, whereas a comparable figure is distributed among 11,900 gardaí. This begs the question as to the reason such a culture arose and has been tolerated.

Deputy Deasy has the great luxury of being a late entrant to the House which allows him to castigate one Government only for the current position. The blame runs much further back. If the Deputy examines the record carefully, he will find that no effective action was ever taken by his party on the odd occasion it had responsibility for this matter.

Mr. Deasy: It has taken the Minister seven years to figure that out.

Mr. McDowell: I am taking responsibility for this matter. Following my appointment, I attended the annual conference of the Prison Officers' Association where I informed those present that I would address the matter of sick leave within a short timeframe, which has since elapsed.

Mr. Deasy: The Minister stated he would have the matter sorted out by September.

Mr. McDowell: The ballot process is now under way. The matter should be dealt with on the basis of consensus, but if that is not possible I will deal with it unilaterally. That is not my wish, as my preference is always to agree with State servants on the manner in which matters of this nature should be addressed. If, however, agreement is not available on realistic terms, I will take unilateral action and I expect the House to back me in taking reasonable steps to end the situation the Deputy correctly categorises as scandalous.