PRISON OFFICERS WILL today call on the Government to deliver a pay agreement to match rising inflation and the “cost of living crisis”.

The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) began their annual conference in Sligo last night – Minister Helen McEntee will address the conference.

In a separate move McEntee is to announce sweeping changes to the governance of the Irish Prison Service (IPS). 

The current legal status of the IPS is as a division of the Department of Justice. It already acts, in a de facto status, as an agency on a day-to-day basis, with a budget of €400 million, but it does not have its own accounting officer.

One key aspect of the plan would see the IPS have a statutory duty to reduce the rate of re-offending.

The main topic for the delegates will the issue of pay and conditions particularly around rising inflation.

The call for a pay increase to match inflation has been mirrored by Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors and various teacher unions. 

Tony Power, President of the POA, explained that the “entire membership of the POA will fight vigorously for a fair pay increase for Prison Officers”.

“Inflation is clearly being driven by energy costs and transport fuel. Wage increases will not increase the cost of these items, because they are set by global markets outside the State. Over the last year inflation rose by 5½%. Energy and petrol costs rose by 30%.”

As with other recent public sector representative bodies and union comments the POA called for the Government to revisit the pay agreement made in January 2021. 

Power said that rising inflation will not be temporary and quoted ESRI projections that inflation would rise by nearly 12% over this year and next.

Power called on McEntee to support a call for pay increases to match inflation. 

“A Minister coming to a Conference like this and praising our members for the work they do is of little comfort when we find ourselves in a cost-of-living crisis. Supermarkets or Petrol Stations do not accept praise as a form of payment.

“What is needed is the concern of workers to be heard and met. We are now in a very different space than we were in January 2021 and a pay increase is justifiably needed as inflation continues to spiral out of control.

“To put it simply – the terms of the ‘Building Momentum’ agreement will no longer suffice – a pay increase that deals adequately with the spiralling inflation is the only solution,” he said.