Backbench Fianna Fáil TDs with prisons in their constituencies have called on the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, to rethink his plans to unilaterally reform the prison service.
Mr McDowell agreed to a meeting last night with the TDs after they raised their concerns at a Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party meeting. The reforms were agreed by the Government on Tuesday after talks with the Prison Officers' Association ended in stalemate.
Those who raised public concern about the plan also included the Laois-Offaly TD, Mr Seán Fleming, in whose constituency Portlaoise Prison is located.
Mr McDowell is understood to have told the TDs that the plan would not go ahead if the prison officers agreed to an alternative plan in line with the demand from the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, for a reduction of up to €30 million in expenditure on prison overtime.
Mr McDowell is threatening to shut two prisons - at Spike Island, Co Cork, and the Curragh, Co Kildare - and remove prison officers from the staff of Loughan House, Co Cavan, and Shelton Abbey, Co Wicklow.
With Mr McDowell also proposing to privatise the prison escort service, some TDs complained in private the Government had agreed a far-reaching reform plan "on the hoof".
The Minister was also accused in private of adopting an overly adversarial approach.
Mr Fleming said prison officers accepted that the overtime issue had to be dealt with but called for a agreed settlement. "A negotiated solution between prison service management and the Prison Officers' Association is the best possible solution and will provide a far better long term solution, rather than one that is imposed without agreement." Ahead of last night's meeting with Mr McDowell, he said: "We will be asking the Minister to ensure that over the next couple of weeks there are meaningful discussions."
Speaking later in the Dail, Mr McDowell said he was prepared to the meet the Prison Officers' Assocation "out of the limelight". He would take any step necessary to reach a reasonable agreement, but his and the Government's resolve to end the overtime culture should not be doubted.
Mr McDowell warned the Government would no longer "feed this outrageous and scandalous overtime culture". He pointed out that nearly all the capital spending for the prisonservice had been "cannibalised" by prison officers' overtime.
