A judge has warned that he is going to start handing down “indicative sentences” due to delays bringing prisoners to court.

Several hearings scheduled to take place before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today didn’t go ahead because of ongoing industrial action by prison officers.

The Prison Officers' Association (POA) has directed its members to strictly adhere to their duties in the prisons - effectively a withdrawal of goodwill by staff.

It made the move due to concerns about the lack of detail over the rollout of COVID vaccines for its members.

It said prison officers have been placed at increased risk this year and it claimed its complaints to the Health and Justice Ministers have fallen on deaf ears.

The work of the Prison Escort Service has been noticeably disrupted, with the courts now feeling the inevitable knock-on effect.

Several sentence hearings due before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court had to be adjourned today because many inmates were not brought to court on time.

Judge Martin Nolan said it seemed the situation was likely to get worse so he said he was going to start handing down “indicative sentences” in cases where inmates were absent.

He said he would then postpone imposing the sentence for a few weeks.