Good morning, Delegates,

 

On behalf of the National Executive Council, I offer you all a warm welcome to this year’s Annual Delegate Conference here in the Galmont Hotel, Galway. It is always a pleasure to come to Galway.

 

I welcome our Minister for Justice, Mr. Jim O’Callaghan, who is attending his first POA Conference, the Director General of the Irish Prison Service, Ms. Caron McCaffrey and her officials from IPS.

 

I would also like to extend fraternal greetings to our colleagues from Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, and Europe and to our fellow trade unionists. I also extend a warm welcome to our invited guests, the national media, and in particular our committed and hardworking delegates who are present here today.

 

As we had branch elections earlier this year many of you are attending your first conference, so I hope you enjoy the experience and take something from it that will assist in your difficult role as a Staff Representative.

 

I would like to extend the best wishes of everyone here today to our colleagues who have been the victim of serious assault, threats or other traumatic incidents whilst carrying out their duties on behalf of the state.

 

Delegates, since last year’s conference we have lost 7 valued friends and colleagues. I’d like to take a moment to remember Dave Griffin, Midlands, Andre Byrne, Mountjoy, Sean Boyne and Stephen Byrne Portlaoise, Derek Martin, Wheatfield, Aidan O‘Shea, Cork and Tracey Hanlon Ard na Gaoithe. May they Rest in Peace.

 

OVERCROWDING

 

Delegates, when it came to preparing this address to conference I did consider just handing out a copy of last year’s address as it is the same issues our members are still facing 12 months down the road but I felt it would be remiss of me not to once again highlight the problems and dangers our members and indeed prisoners face on a daily basis.

 

Minister, as you are aware, the number of people in custody is continuing to rise daily, yesterday we had 5,344 in custody. This is approximately 1500 prisoners more than at this time in 2019 when I asked the then Minister for Justice to take real action to ensure we did not return to the bad old days of Pack Em, Rack Em and Stack Em and to the revolving door situation. This overcrowding situation is a disgrace and is potentially creating an explosive situation within our prisons.

Following a meeting held last Tuesday with senior officials—just two days prior to our conference—we were genuinely astonished to learn for the first time that:

• No analysis has been conducted regarding the upgrade potential of the E Block at Portlaoise Prison, where 160 idle cells could potentially accommodate up to 200 prisoners.

 

• Curragh Prison could be brought back into operation to hold 98 prisoners—at a cost significantly lower than the €600,000 per unit currently being spent on modular homes.

 

• No assessment has been made of the development potential of the D Block footprint at Portlaoise, the Separation Unit at Mountjoy, or the former hospital wing at Castlerea. These locations may support fast-tracked construction of updated facilities capable of providing more than 450 additional spaces.

 

At a time when over 350 prisoners are sleeping on floors daily, we are truly shocked that these viable and seemingly straightforward solutions remain wholly unexamined by the Department of Justice. This is unacceptable—and someone must be held accountable.

In the interim, we are urgently seeking a meeting with you to discuss this most critical issue and explore a path forward. During such a severe overcrowding crisis, no stone should be left unturned.

We met with you and your officials recently Minister to discuss this and other issues and in fairness you gave us a good hearing. But NOTHING and I repeat NOTHING will address this situation unless you find the budget to create more prison spaces. We and you must move on from the promises.

 

Successive ministers, as we have advised you, have failed prison officers and this is why we find ourselves in this position today. In 2023 on this very stage the then acting Minister for Justice and now Tainiste Mr. Simon Harris referenced the overcrowding situation and stated that “It is not good enough for those who go to work in this environment every day”. Mr. Harris went on “it is not good enough for the 167 people sleeping on a mattress on the floor or for their cell mates who have little or no room to move about”. But what did Minister Harris do about it? What did Minister McEntee do about it? NOTHING. Today, it is still not good enough for those who must go to work in this potentially dangerous environment every day.

 

There is over DOUBLE that number now sleeping on floors in our prisons. Those ministers made hollow promises of 650 extra spaces with new builds promised for Cloverhill, Midlands and Castlerea and a four-story block on the grounds of the old Separation Unit in Mountjoy. Two years on and not a sod has been turned on any of these projects. The only increase in capacity that we have seen is a few rooms converted into cells here and there at enormous cost and the building of 30 Single Occupancy Modular units at a cost of almost €20 Million. You’d build a lot of Bike Sheds and WRC Stone Walls for that money.

 

Some people are of the opinion that bunk beds, accompanied by extra staffing, will solve the problem but it is simply adding to the problem. Unless the proper associated resources such as healthcare, schools, workshops, visits etc. are being provided it only adds to the violence and intimidation of weaker prisoners and their families.

 

 

Minister, our members should not be expected to work in these overcrowded prisons and the people in custody should not be expected to live in these overcrowded conditions. Prison is meant to be about rehabilitation, but that rehabilitation is impossible when we don’t have the living space, the school spaces or the workshop spaces to allow prisoners to engage constructively during their sentences. An idle mind minister is the Devils Workshop.

 

Minister, it is our contention that the safe working capacity of the present-day prison estate is 4300, that is over 1000 less than what is currently in custody so today I am asking you, Minister, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? And I don’t want to sound alarmist Minister, but if we don’t find an immediate solution to this problem, we will have a tragic event or some form of crisis on all our hands.

 

DRONES AND DRUGS

 

Delegates, as you all know Drone incursions into our prisons are, at the very least, a daily occurrence. The level of contraband in our prisons is at unprecedented levels, to the extent that prisoners are now storing drugs and phones, such is the level of contraband already in circulation.

 

In 2019, a Prison Service spokesperson, as quoted in the Irish Times newspaper, said “that the Irish Prison Service is exploring a number of technology options to deal with the problem”, SIX YEARS later not alone is the problem still there it has gotten an awful lot worse. The current netting that covers a lot of our prison yards is not sufficient as has been proven over the past number of years. They have been burnt through by firebombs dropped by the drones; they have collapsed under the weight of snow leaving some prisons without exercise yards for prisoners. Drones are so sophisticated nowadays that the only way to stop the steady flow of contraband into our prisons is to STOP THE DRONES FROM FLYING PAST THE PERIMETER WALL of a prison in the first place. Prison officers are simply not able to intervene to what is essentially an external threat.

 

The danger that incidents such as these create for Prison Officers is unquantifiable, as officers will put their own Health and Safety at risk in an effort to retrieve this contraband. Minister, I am not here to sensationalise this issue but if drugs, phones even Chinese takeaways can be sent in by drone then what’s to stop them sending in firearms? What is it going to take to ensure that the Department of Justice takes some sort of meaningful action to address this most serious issue. If it takes a legislative change and a review of intervention in other jurisdictions Minister, then it is your departments responsibility to make that change, irrespective of cost. It is difficult enough to manage a significant number of our prisoners in the first place, but when we then introduce a “drug fuelled” environment both the occupants and staff are at greater risk. We not alone have the effects of the drugs to deal with but also the strong-arm tactics that inevitably emerge in such a drug filled environment

 

ASSAULTS

 

Overcrowding provides the perfect atmosphere for the bully to thrive and exert huge pressure on vulnerable prisoners. This applies in pressure to traffic in contraband, including weapons and illegal drugs. Serious violence is often part of the scenario here and we prison officers pay the inevitable price. The overcrowding crisis is contributing to a drastic increase in prisoner-on-prisoner assaults. Very often these are vulnerable prisoners who are set upon by the bullies.

 

The assaults on prison officers have tragically become part of the system, part of the culture – and this is not acceptable to the Prison Officers Association. All state employees should have a safe working environment, not so for prison officers, and this seems to be widely accepted by the entire management body.

 

Recently, we have seen an officer receive life altering injuries after being slashed in the face with an improvised weapon. We have seen an officer’s house fire-bombed and was it not for that officer’s quick reaction, the outcome could have been far more serious or even fatal.

 

Since we met you last month the overcrowding crisis has worsened, drug use in our prisons is at unprecedented levels, and failure to implement agreed policies is resulting in less services for prisoners. This combination is creating the perfect storm and as history repeats itself assaults on staff will inevitably increase as the tension levels in our prisons intensifies. And this as we all know will sooner or later lead to a major crisis in one or more of our prisons. Minister, we see our garda colleagues on the beat each day carrying incapacitating spray, batons and body cams. PPE has been sanctioned for our members but not one prison officer on the floor of any prison today has been issued with this PPE.

At our Annual Conference last year, when speaking on this very issue, Minister Mc Entee said that “Obviously permitting the use of incapacitant spray in a prison setting is something that will require robust policies, procedures and training, as well as potential legislative changes but I have asked that whatever is needed to provide for this, be done.” But Minister, I can tell you AGAIN that there are no prison officers on landings today that have this level of protection. Minister, today I call on you to protect our members. I ask that your actions speak louder than words and that you ensure that this PPE is rolled out to Prison Officers without any further delays.

 

CONCLUSION

 

Minister, you are new to this job, and we wish you well. Our full time National Officers met with you a number of weeks ago and we welcome the positivity around that meeting. But Minister, I want to caution you, your predecessors have been continually failed by your department, and as a result Prison Officers have been failed by successive ministers. The statistics and blatant lack of progress speak for themselves.

 

The empty promises of extra spaces and the failure to construct new accommodation blocks to deal with the chronically dangerous overcrowding crisis. The failure to deal with the problem of daily drone drops into our prisons by changing legislation, failure to deal with the levels of contraband in our prisons, failure to deal with the violence against both staff and prisoners and the failure to oversee the rollout of vital PPE have led to officer morale being at an all-time low.

 

So, Minister, now is your time, I can only hope that when it’s time for me to address conference again that you have made significant changes and that the progress is there for all to see. Needless to say, we are here to assist and support any measures which will create safer and workable prisons, where we can focus again on rehabilitation and not just on our daily efforts to survive.

 

Delegates, as I prepare to finish my address, I am reminded of a quote from Nelson Mandela, a man who spent more than his fair share of time in prison, and I would suggest that the Department of Justice and the Irish Prison Service take note of this,

 

“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until it has been inside one of its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones”

 

Finally, Delegates, While I do sincerely hope that you all enjoy the conference, let us not lose sight of the fundamental reason we are here—this year and every year: to represent those who entrusted us with this responsibility.

 

I want to pay tribute to each and every one of you. Without your dedication and commitment, this Union simply could not function. It is your unrelenting hard work that makes us the strong, resilient Union we are today—and for that, we are deeply grateful.

 

Delegates, we should never forget: our combined strength dates back to the very foundation of the POA. That is our legacy—and we must always carry it forward with pride and determination.

 

Go raibh mile máith agaibh.