The State's prison system is a "total failure", the inspector of prisons has said.
In his first ever interview, Inspector of Prisons Dermot Kinlen, a retired High Court judge, revealed that at least five prison officers were "under suspicion" of smuggling drugs into Irish prisons.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Mr Kinlen said the drug problem in prisons has to be controlled "and if possible, eradicated". Once drugs were brought into prisons they were then "controlled by bullies", he added.
"I have very strongly suggested that we bring in a business consultant to look at the cost of the bureaucrats, huge raft of bureaucrats. The present prison system is a total failure. I have no doubt about it."
Mr Kinlen said there were 18 training workshops in St Patrick's Institution for young offenders, including "one wonderful one where a very fine officer trained people how to repair cars and to drive".
He said that because of "the Minister's row" with prison officers, all 18 workshops were now closed.
This afternoon the Green Party Justice spokesperson Ciarán Cuffe said Justice Kinlen's remarks were a "damning indictment of the way in which our prison system is currently run".
He said: "The onus is on the Minister for Justice to take action and invest in training and education programmes for prisoners, especially for young offenders who deserve to have the opportunity to equip themselves for life outside prison."
The Minister for Justice must place rehabilitation at the heart of our prison system," he concluded.
Labour Pary's spokesperson on Justice Brendan Howlin meanwhile said that Kinlen's comment's shouldn't be dismissed.
"Mr. Kinlen is a retired High Court judge who is an accepted authority on prisons. He was appointed to the position of Inspector of Prisons by the current government and he has produced a series of courageous reports on the shocking conditions found in many of our prisons - all of which have effectively been ignored by Minister McDowell," said Howlin.
"The threat of a prison for serious offenders has to remain a central part of our criminal justice system. However, we need a properly planned prison system, with adequate spaces and reasonable opportunities for education and rehabilitation. That has been strikingly absent under Minister McDowell," he concluded.
Mr Kinlen's report, published by the Minister for Justice yesterday evening, revealed that 40 prisoners escaped from an open detention centre over a 12-month period.
A further eight offenders from Shelton Abbey, Co Wicklow, failed to return following temporary release.
Twenty of the escapees and three of those on temporary release were still on the run at the time a report was commissioned on the centre in October 2005.
The smuggling of illegal drugs into the centre was also highlighted as an ongoing problem at the institution, the Inspector of Prisons found.