Prison service aims to recruit 100 staff despite funding problems

Northern Ireland's prison population rose by 238 in the last year

The Northern Ireland Prison Service has said that despite funding problems, it intends to recruit more than 100 staff to keep NI jails running.

Its director general, Ronnie Armour, said it would be hiring the staff "in the hope" more money becomes available.

"If we stop recruitment we can't run our prisons - they become extremely dangerous places. That's not a position I want to be in," he said.

Mr Armour said Justice Minister Naomi Long had approved the move.

He added that there was currently an £8m deficit in the prison service budget - largely due to increased utility costs.

"Last year we were paying just under £3m for our utility costs and this year the costs have risen to around £11m - and that is money that we don't have. But we need to continue recruiting to keep our prisons safe, to keep our staff safe and those in our care safe," Mr Armour told Radio Ulster's Nolan Programme.

"I'm recruiting in the hope that we can get some additional money over the next couple of months.

"I suppose I'll be in a very difficult position as accounting officer if we don't, but the alternative for me is that we stop recruitment, we can't run our prisons, they become extremely dangerous places."

The next hiring round would see prison officer numbers rise by approximately 60 from the current 1,300.

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Earlier this week, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said it was freezing officer recruitment due to "sustained budgetary pressures".

The prison service needs to seek approval of the department of justice for recruitment, but the police service is independent and doesn't.

Ronnie Armour said prisons could become extremely dangerous without proper staffing

A batch of new police recruits due to begin training in October will be the last taken on in this financial year.

Mr Armour said Northern Ireland's prison population had increased by 238 in the last year to 1,717.

"That brings enormous pressures with it," he said.

"Because of that increase in the population, I can't stop recruitment because we simply couldn't run our prisons safely if we weren't recruiting additional staff.

"We're hoping over the next number of months to recruit around 100-plus staff.

"Some of that is to address the shortfall that we currently have, because people are obviously leaving us every month because people retire, people medically retire, so we need to replace those people.

"But in terms of additional people we're looking at around 60. We haven't got the money yet, but I can't take that risk."