Parliamentary Question: Prison Staff

18th November 2003

423. Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if persons at present providing educational training or other rehabilitative programmes or services in either the Fort Mitchel or Curragh institutions will lose their jobs as a result of his plans to close these institutions as of 1 January 2004. [27623/03]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. McDowell): In the event that the mothballing of Fort Mitchel and the Curragh places of detention has to be proceeded with, I am aware of the implications for the positions of some of the teaching staff of the two centres. I can also confirm to the Deputy that I have received detailed submissions on behalf of the staff of the education units of each institution, expressing their serious concerns about the threat to the future of the two centres.
I reiterate that I personally want neither to close nor even mothball either centre. However, if the Prison Officers' Association is unwilling to agree reasonable terms for the operation of prisons on an economically sustainable basis, it is a course I will reluctantly have to pursue.

The members of the teaching staff of Fort Mitchel and the Curragh, who have been duly assigned there by County Cork VEC and County Kildare VEC, respectively, are paid by those VECs and are not on the payroll of the Irish Prison Service. Transfers to the education units of other prisons of these teachers cannot be advanced by the Irish Prison Service as a matter of course, even to the education unit of another nearby prison, since this would involve transfers of individual teachers from one VEC to another. The Deputy will be aware that those prisons nearest to both Fort Mitchel and the Curragh are in the catchment areas of VECs other than those of counties Cork and Kildare. I understand that while it is ultimately a matter for the Department of Education and Science, the redeployment or secondment of full-time teachers as between different VECs must be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

The complement of teaching staffs of both Fort Mitchel and the Curragh, in common with the education units of the other prisons, are composed of part-time as well as full-time teachers. In the mainstream education system, where schools close, I understand that it has not generally proved possible to arrange or negotiate a suitable global mechanism to secure redeployment or secondment of part-time teachers as between different VECs. In closure scenarios, job losses, therefore, can arise.

If the failure of the POA to reach agreement causes the mothballings to proceed, the prisoner population as detained in the two institutions will be transferred to one or more of the other prisons and places of detention, as may be appropriate. As there will therefore not be a reduction in the overall number of prisoners in custody, the allocation of teachers to the various VECs to support the delivery of education programmes in the prisons, as determined by the Department of Education and Science, will remain at its current level.

Against a background of the various factors mentioned, it would be the intention of the Irish Prison Service to offer every assistance, as far as possible, to the County Cork and County Kildare VECs and other relevant VECs to enable retention, to the greatest extent possible, within the prison education system of all teachers employed at Fort Mitchel and the Curragh.