The director general of the Irish Prison Service has pledged to continue to tackle high rates of absenteeism among his staff but says the focus is now on a "hard core" of individuals who are on long-term sick leave.

In an interview with the Sunday Tribune, he acknowledged that despite the introduction of tighter security measures, it is unlikely that we will ever completely eliminate drugs in Irish prisons.

In truth, the unusually high rates of sick leave have long been a contentious issue for the prison service which Purcell leads.

Under a new annualised hours deal introduced in late 2005 to tackle the problem, the state's 3,300-odd prison officers are now paid for 360 hours' overtime annually regardless of whether or not they work those hours.

In return, when an officer goes sick, another officer covers without extra pay.

This approach appears to have worked, with rates of sick leave falling by over 17% in 2007, leading to an annual saving of €30m due to a reduction in the overtime bill.

And yet Purcell, who projects a further 7% to 8% cut for this year, points to the problems that remain.

A hard core of absenteeism

"We recognise that there is a problem of absenteeism. We recognise that the majority of prison officers don't have a problem [when it comes to] absenteeism. There's a small minority that we do have a problem with, and we're being very proactive in dealing with that minority," he says.

This has culminated with the issuing of 19 notices to individuals informing them that they face having their contracts terminated.

While not all of these will leave the service – each has the right to appeal, and most usually do – Purcell says that you can be looking at "extremes" when it comes to tackling this issue.

"You can be looking at, say for example, someone who's working on the outside, or working part-time, and who has taken sick leave to cover that, down to the person who really just has a problem coming into work. Because it's not an easy job, and some people I think find that they're not suited for the job, and use sick leave to cover perhaps those issues," he says.

Yet he is at pains to stress that others on long-term leave may be in this position for genuine reasons and deserve support.

The IPS has also been rumoured to engage the services of private investigators in its efforts to catch genuine cases of abuse.

When this is put to him, however, Purcell is somewhat circumspect, saying only that he "wouldn't rule out anything".

"If we believe the system is being ripped off, I wouldn't rule out anything. That's not to say we've used them or haven't used them until now," he adds.

Key to Purcell's approach is his belief that there is a "hard core" of individuals who do not deserve to be on long-term sick leave, and who are "skewing" the overall averages within the system. In support of this, he supplies figures which show that one-third of all sick leave in 2007 was attributable to just 4% of prison staff (or 127 people.)

"We have deliberately focused on the people we consider are problem cases," he says.

"We've conducted a thorough examination in every prison and we've identified the problem cases, and we're concentrating our efforts on dealing with the problem cases … It really is a hard core of people, a hard core of problem cases, but unfortunately they distort the overall picture."

Work is proceeding on providing additional capacity of some 400 spaces in three other prisons around the state, at Castlerea and Wheatfield, he says.

"We have no option but to accept every prisoner admitted by the court, we cannot put up a house full sign. And in that context, all we can do is project what we think the likely capacity issues are going to be going forward," he says.

Be that as it may, these have been a trying few months for a man in Purcell's position, amid claims that gangland activity is being directed by prisoners from within their prison cells. The recent publication of a picture of convicted murderer Charlotte Mulhall jokingly holding a knife to a man's throat in Mountjoy Prison hardly helped matters.

Airport-style screening

For his part, Purcell says the current heightened security arrangements, including the introduction of airport-style screening of all visitors and staff to prisons, and the planned "blocking" of mobile phone systems, have been in the pipeline for almost a year and half.

"I think the reality is that individual incidents can tend to distort the overall picture," he says.

"For example, we would have 1.3m bed nights per annum within the prison system, so if you view these incidents in the overall context of the number of prisoners we deal with on a yearly basis, I think that gives the true picture."

But he also acknowledges that mobile phones are unlikely to be blocked in all secure prisons before 2010, as the ongoing process of rolling out the new system – the first of its kind in Europe – continues.

Drug-free prisons

So, can we ever expect a completely "drug-free" prison service?

"I'm not going to be a hostage to fortune and say that... Prisoners are very innovative in the methods they use to smuggle contraband, as is evidenced recently – we've had grannies using zimmerframes to bring in drugs, we've had babies' nappies with drugs hidden in them," he says.

"So you can never guarantee that you're going to have it completely drug-free. What we believe we will be doing is, we will close down absolutely as far as possible the opportunities for people to smuggle drugs into the prison."