Prison overtime changes saved just €8m of predicted €279m

The overtime working hours system was replaced in Irish prisons by an annualised hours process in 2006. Officials said the new system would save €31 million per year in overtime costs.

However, figures shown to the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) show that savings between 2006-14 totalled only €8 million, rather than €279 million.

Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy said: “The prison service estimated that the annualised hours system would produce savings of €31 million a year. This was not achieved.

“The examination estimated that the average annual net salary saving as a result of the introduction of the annualised hours system is of the order of €5.5 million a year.

“Furthermore, savings achieved to end 2014 were offset by substantial lump sum payments to serving prison officers when the new system was introduced totalling €41 million.

“The estimated net Exchequer saving for the period 2006 to 2014 was, as a result, a total or around €8 million.”