Applications close this weekend for the position of director of the State's new Prisons Authority, and although the job is comparable to managing a minefield, there has been no shortage of interest. No doubt the £81,000 salary has helped.
The prisons are being hived off from the Department of Justice after a succession of controversies and staffing problems in recent years. But it is being observed, in the general area of St Stephen's Green, that it might not have been unexpected that Justice would lightly part with any of its old fiefdoms. So, the front runners all come from within the Department, from where it is believed several senior officials have tendered applications.
Others in the running include prison governors, whose submission to the interim board setting up the new authority stated that it was the Prison Officers' Association (POA) - and not management - who actually ran the prison system. There are also applicants from the penal reform and probation fields.
Meanwhile, wags observe that given the nature of the prison service, where storms erupt with suddenness and ferocity, the severence arrangements are attracting more inquiries than the actual salary.