The result of a ballot of the country's 3,200 prison officers on a new pay deal is expected to be known tomorrow.
It is expected the new arrangements will be accepted by the POA by a slim majority
Voting in the ballot by the Prison Officers' Association (POA) ends today.
A POA spokesman said the national executive will meet in Dublin tomorrow to receive the result. It will be made public in the afternoon.
The POA has recommended its members accept the compromise pay deal offered by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell in their dispute over overtime.
Mr McDowell is seeking drastic cuts to the prison officer overtime bill of €64 million per annum.
He initially laid down a ten-day deadline for the POA to decide on the deal last month but extended it to give the association more time to consider clarification it had received.
The new deal offers the POA the same annualised hours as a deal they rejected by two to one last April. Under that offer, prison officers would have earned between €48,000 and €70,000 per year and be required to work an average of seven hours overtime each week. They would also have been paid a once-off payment of €13,750.
However, the new deal contains amendments allowing 13 per cent of officers to work no overtime at all. The slack would be taken up by officers wishing to work more hours of overtime than was allowed under the previous deal.
It is expected the new arrangements will be accepted by the POA by a slim majority.
Mr McDowell has warned the POA that if his latest offer is rejected, he will press ahead with cost cutting that he hopes will save €25 million each year.
The programme involves the privatisation of prison escorts and handing control of the open prisons at Loughan House, Co Cavan, and Shelton Abbey, Co Wicklow, to a private company.