A Mountjoy prison officer who went to fight in Ukraine, leaving money for others to cover his shifts, has 'blown the whistle' on a cash-based shift swapping system within the prison service.
Brian Meagher told Prime Time how he paid other prison officers cash to cover his shifts when he travelled to Ukraine for several months in mid-2022.
Mr Meagher was later dismissed by the Irish Prison Service (IPS) over the matter, but the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) found in August that he had been unfairly dismissed and should be reengaged.
"I'd organised the swapping system with them [other officers]. I'd paid them their cash, and they covered my shifts while I was away," Mr Meagher said.
"It's not like I invented this system. This system is there. I've seen it work. So, I didn't see the difference between me using it or, them using it."
The IPS denied that any such system exists, telling the WRC that if it did, it would be "fraudulent."
However, in its findings, the WRC accepted that an "unofficial swapping system... in fact does exist" within Mountjoy Prison and that Mr Meagher sought to use the system to cover his shifts before leaving for Ukraine, where he was later injured in action.
The WRC adjudicator, Brian Dalton, found that Mr Meagher’s absence for nearly a month went unnoticed — something he said was "indicative of a system that has a high degree of self-regulation and swapping."
The IPS is now appealing the WRC decision as it says it disputes the facts of the Brian Meagher case.
The IPS told Prime Time that it "rejects any suggestion that unlawful, fraudulent, or unethical practices are tolerated within the Service".
It also said that it "appointed an independent investigator in relation to the Exchange of Duty system" last year following an unrelated Protected Disclosure, adding "the investigation did not substantiate the allegations."
According to several senior prison staff, including former governors, who spoke to Prime Time, such cash payments for shift cover are common.
Two senior officers spoke about how they authorised shift swapping between officers, knowing them to be based on cash transactions.
How does it work?
According to the senior officers under the unofficial cash-based system an officer who wishes to take a shift off, that is not annual leave, agrees a swap with another officer, often via apps like Telegram and WhatsApp.
The officer then applies to take the time off under an official ‘exchange of duty’ system, whereby officers can swap shifts with colleagues, if approved by a senior officer.
A senior officer can approve an ‘exchange of duties’ request once an Exchange of Duties form is filled out, giving details of the dates to be swapped by two officers.
If authorised, the details are then entered into the computerised time-and-attendance system, called Clockwise.
Under the official ‘exchange of duty’ system, each officer works a shift in exchange for the other. But under the unofficial one, one officer simply pays cash to another other instead and never works a shift back.
This, according to corporate governance experts who spoke to Prime Time, raises significant tax, pension and other implications for the Service.
One former Assistant Chief Officer (ACO), who left the service in recent years, who wished to remain anonymous, described how he authorised "swaps", which he knew were being done for cash.
"During my time, I would have signed off on thousands of ‘exchange of duty’ forms and inputted that information into the Clockwise system. I could see at first hand, that at least half of these [shifts] were never being reciprocated."
As an ACO — responsible for overseeing daily operations and staff — he said it often became obvious when swaps weren’t genuine.
"If you see an officer that doesn't work 15 of his days and he has other officers working for him, you just presume that he's paying those other officers to carry out his duties."
Another man, a former Chief Officer (CO) from another prison, who also worked as a ‘Detail Officer’ overseeing rosters, spoke about how he never had time to check if ‘exchange of duty’ forms which he authorised, led to a shift swap or not.
"There could be 20, 30, 40 forms a day going into the detail office. The Chief of Detail has no time to go and check every single 30 or 40 exchanges," he said.
Over time, he said the paperwork submitted by officers made it clear when a swap was fake — in other words, done for cash.
"The second date would not be on it, or it would be put on it, and a little ‘tick’ box would cancel it," they added.
The Chief Officer then knew not to enter a second date, to be worked back in return, into the electronic system.
Brian Meagher says when he was paying cash, he also indicated that it was not a real swap on the ‘exchange of duty’ form.
"When you do it out with the person who's working for you, if it's going to be for cash, an asterisk will be put beside the date that you say you will get back for them. Those offices will be filled with documents with little asterisks beside it," Mr Meagher said.
The IPS told Prime Time that it does not recognise or condone any cash-based arrangements.
In a statement they said that that is undertaking "Annual reviews of the Exchange of Duty policy, focused on identifying measures to support improved compliance and accountability".
It says that new measures introduced in recent years resulted in "improved compliance with the Exchange of Duty system".
And that since these measures were introduced, "twenty-four officers have been removed from the Exchange of Duty privilege", with none relating to the issue of payment.
How widespread is it?
Several senior officers told Prime Time they had encountered cash payments in prisons across the Eastern and Midlands regions, and believe the practice exists nationwide.
Estimates of how many officers engage in it ranged from a quarter of all officers to over three-quarters of them.
Most cash swaps, according to people who Prime Time spoke to, go between the basic grade officers, of which there are over 2,000. Certain more senior grades swap too, they said, but as there are fewer of them, it's less common, as swaps can only be done with an officer at the same grade level.
While only some staff use the cash system, its existence is common knowledge.
"Everyone knows that it's widespread. There would be a notification sent to governors and prisons — on maybe two occasions that I can think of — where they said, ‘crack down a little bit on this system’," according to the former ACO.
Mr Meagher believes the cash system could be detected.
"The electronic system would show that I did not reciprocate that day for them because I would not have clocked in for them."
The former ACO agrees that an analysis of the data in time-and-attendance system, would show that shifts were not reciprocated.
Reviewing the information provided to Prime Time by the senior officers about how the cash system works, Niamh Brennan, Professor of Corporate Governance at University College Dublin (UCD), said "If you try to reconcile the time in attendance, it will immediately show up that there are significant discrepancies, I would have thought".
The IPS said in a statement that it has completed a procurement process "to install a system which will deliver enhanced monitoring" of the Exchange of Duty process, by the end of 2026.
It said, this new system "will remove the paper-based process… And render it impossible to avail of an Exchange of Duty without reciprocation."
How does it impact prisons?
All senior staff who spoke to Prime Time noted how the cash system negatively impacted many aspects of prison life — from prisoner welfare to prison security.
Prison routines are disrupted if the staff complement is incorrect due to cash swaps.
For example, if an officer authorised to open a workshop or a gym is replaced by another who doesn’t have the authorisation and numbers are low, then those prisoner activities can be cancelled.
"So, you’re taking away a lot of their out of cell time. The rest of the time they are behind the cell door," according to the former ACO.
The Irish Penal Reform Trust’s Executive Director Saoirse Brady said that she found it very concerning that anything would lead to prisoners being restricted access to activities and rehabilitative programmes.
"If you take any of that away, then tensions can heighten further. There are people three, four to a cell. They're sharing a cell the size of a car park space with a toilet that they have to use in front of each other.
"Tensions are heightened anyway. It means that those people aren't being rehabilitated in the way that prison is meant to do."
Persistent minority abusing the system
Senior officers who spoke to Prime Time, said that while most prison officers do a very good job in difficult circumstances, the cash swapping system is leading to poor levels of attendance amongst some officers, with others doing very long stints of work for cash.
"You have officers that are not working anything near the hours that they probably should. Their skills are not completely honed. You have other officers that are overworked and not as alert", according to the former ACO.
He says a small minority prioritise businesses on the outside.
"I've known of some prison officers who had business on the outside, where they pretty much never came into the prison."
Others, who became known as ‘cash merchants' — officers who regularly worked extra shifts for cash — became a real problem for management, according to another former Chief Officer.
"They were either burnt out, intoxicated, and sometimes both. Because they are working, I suppose, 70, 80, 90 hours a week. And then doing that, they need a release. They used to go to the pub at lunchtime. Then they would either come back late or come back unfit for work."
He said a small minority of the ‘cash merchants’ became a security risk for other reasons.
"If you are working all those hours and you're taking cocaine to keep it ticking over, well then, your dealer now has you where he wants you."
Saoirse Brady said the situation highlights deeper safety and oversight issues within the prison system.
"You have people there who are literally falling asleep at the wheel. We've seen from the Irish Prison Service's own statistics for last year, an increase in the number of prisoner-on-prisoner assault, but a decrease in the number of physical interventions by prison officers," Ms Brady said.
The IPS said in their statement that it has "highly trained staff operating in challenging environments the majority of whom are diligent and vigilant in their work."
The statement added that the claims made by senior officers "linking Exchange of Duty participation to addiction, burnout, or contraband smuggling are unsubstantiated".
What should happen now?
According to Niamh Brennan, Professor of Corporate Governance at University College Dublin (UCD) the Prime Time investigation into cash deals in the prison service raises serious questions about the governance of the Irish Prison Service.
"This is a division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), it's not a stand-alone state body. The Department of Justice's own internal audit function oversees it. There are questions to answer about the effectiveness of that oversight," Prof Brennan said.
She says other state bodies now need to investigate this.
"This is an unofficial cash exchange process. And I would have thought the Revenue should take an interest in this. I think the Controller and Auditor General should conduct an investigation," she added.
The IPS says it takes its "governance responsibilities very seriously, and that "its statements in its Annual Report for 2024 regarding governance, oversight and audit are accurate."
In response to Prime Time's findings the DOJ said "These allegations appear to refer to illegal arrangements without the knowledge or acquiescence of this Department or the Director General of the Irish Prison Service. The Department takes any allegations of wrongdoing extremely seriously and will ensure that they are fully investigated."
A report on this subject from reporter Oonagh Smyth and producer/director Isabel Perceval is broadcast on the 16 October edition of Prime Time at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player.
