Prison officers have clocked up over 22,000 injury-related sick days in the past five years, according to figures obtained by the Sunday Tribune.

The number, equal to 60 years of missing days, covers staff who were attacked by inmates as well as other work-related injuries.

According to the Prison Officers Association (POA), the figures show an ongoing security problem in prisons, and it claims the majority are related to working conditions.

The POA says there are countless examples of attacks on its members, including a vicious sexual assault of a female guard in Cork prison and an attack on a male staff member at Mountjoy which necessitated reconstructive facial surgery after a recent riot at the jail.

The organisation, which represents the majority of those employed in Irish prisons, insists its members have the most stressful of all uniformed state sector jobs and that the high level of sick leave is proportional to the environment.

"Sick leave for prison officers is directly connected to their working conditions, whether it is injury or the onset of stress-related illness or involvement in serious incidents," said POA deputy general secretary Eugene Dennehy.

Since 2003, the Irish Prison Service (IPS) has sanctioned over €2 million in compensation payments to prison staff for physical and emotional harm, most relating to Limerick prison. Another 21 cases filed with the IPS are outstanding.

However, the number of assault- and injury-related payments is likely to be far higher when separate actions filed with the State Claims Agency (SCA) are taken into account.

Despite concern over the level of injury-related leave, the numbers fell dramatically last year following a sharp rise over the preceding four years.

In 2007, just 2,415 days were lost to injury related illness, but between 2003 and 2006, that number rose steadily from 2,337 to 7,495 for a single year.

Although most compensation claims processed by the IPS related to Limerick prison, the highest number of injury-related sick days was at Cork prison, which lost 4,293 days over the five-year period.

Closest to that was Cloverhill with 2,802 days, followed by Limerick with 2,790 and the Midlands prison with 2,727.

The POA says the type of assault varies, from prison officers having boiling water thrown over them to being kicked, punched, spat at and bitten. Being spat at or bitten leads to protracted testing for HIV and hepatitis.

"If injury-related incidents were taken out of the equation then prison officers would be no different to anyone else when it comes to sick days," said Dennehy.