Prison officers have held a protest outside Northern Ireland jails to call for more help from the government after their names were found on a suspected IRA list.

A spokesman for the Prison Officers' Association said the protests were aimed at forcing prison management and the government to properly compensate officers forced to move home to protect themselves.

The names were found on a laptop computer seized in October during a police investigation into alleged IRA intelligence gathering at Stormont.

A special police unit was set up to warn those whose names appear on the list seized.

Finlay Spratt: "The prison officers could be in debt into old age"

Later, the Prison Officers' Association said they feared 2,000 names, addresses and telephone numbers of serving officers may be on the list.

The government has a number of programmes in place, including the Assisted Home Removal Scheme, to help with the costs of moving those in Northern Ireland under threat.

A second programme for those wishing to remain in their present home meets the costs of installing security measures.

The moving scheme provides for legal costs of selling and buying homes, removals and an extra mileage allowance for those who end up having to travel further to work.

In total �12,600 is available if there is a difference in the cost of moving to a similar house in a new area where property is more expensive.

Repayable loans based on salary are also available.

'We accepted risk'

Finlay Spratt, head of the Prison Officers Association, said some of the prison officers would still be forced into debt because the funding would not pay all of the costs of moving house.

"What we are saying is that we have accepted down through the years that being a prison officer is a risk, that goes with the job.

It is extremely alarming that the prison officers whose names were on the stolen list have not yet been advised of the security implications

Norman Boyd NIUP assembly member

"But this situation is not our fault, we are not responsible. This is entirely the employers fault," he said.

"It all comes about because of the government's haste in appeasing paramilitaries and putting them in a position where they could get this information."

Mr Spratt said officers were not trying to use to threat to move up the property ladder.

He cited the case of a prison officer whose north whose wife suffered shrapnel injuries in a bomb attack on her north Belfast home.

He said the man sold his home for �84,000, and bought another suitable property in County Down for �156,000.

After putting in the equity from the original house and �15,000 savings he was left with a �77,000 mortgage compared with his previous �20,000 loan, Mr Spratt said.

"Given the age of many prison officers, they could be saddled with a large mortgage into their 70s, and that is not fair," he added.

'Limits on generosity'

Northern Ireland Unionist Party assembly member Norman Boyd said he fully supported the prison officers.

Mr Boyd said it was appalling that several weeks had transpired since prison officers details were found on the suspected IRA list.

"It is extremely alarming that the prison officers whose names were on the stolen list have not yet been advised of the security implications," he said.

The South Antrim member added that he had written to the security minister and to the director general of the Northern Ireland Prison Service seeking assurances that steps have been taken to ensure that such a breach of security would never happen again.

There is a limit on how generous we can be

NI Prison Service spokesman

A Northern Ireland Prison Service spokesman said industrial action was not the way to resolve the dispute.

He said: "It is deplorable that prison officers should find their personal details compromised in this way.

"The Prison Service is doing everything in its power to protect their safety and security.

"Disruptive industrial action will solve nothing and it breaches the prison officers' terms and conditions of employment," he added.

While the government wanted to help as much as possible "there is a limit on how generous we can be", he added.

Association members met Security Minister Jane Kennedy for talks last Friday but failed to come to agreement.

In February, a medal to recognise the bravery of staff in the Northern Ireland Prison Service throughout the Troubles was produced.

A total of 29 staff have been murdered and many others injured and intimidated over the past 30 years.