Human rights groups have supported the strong attack by the new Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral on the failure of the prison system and the scarcity of treatment facilities for offenders.
The Very Rev Robert Mac Carthy criticised the Government for its failure to invest in programmes for sex offenders and drug addicts, especially in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.
"It can hardly nowadays be a lack of resources," he said. "Would it even take the price of Farmleigh to set up a full-scale drug treatment regime in Mountjoy? I doubt it."
He also questioned the whole system of sending offenders to prison, saying that it is costly and "simply doesn't work".
Dr MacCarthy urged a move away from the current "retributive" system of justice to a "restorative" one, with schemes such as victim-offender mediation projects used in Canada and New Zealand.
Dr MacCarthy was addressing leading members of the judiciary and barristers at a service at St Michan's Church of Ireland yesterday to mark the opening of the new law term.
His remarks were broadly welcomed last night by the Irish Penal Reform Trust and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. The governor of Mountjoy Prison, Mr John Lonergan, also said he agreed with the broad thrust of Dr Mac Carthy's remarks.
In his speech, Dr MacCarthy said our national obsession with imprisoning more and more people was becoming a scandal to the Western world. Apart from the "ruinous" cost of imprisonment, at £894 for each prisoner every week, it simply did not work, he said.
"The same people, almost all of them drawn from a deprived under class, reoffend time and time again." The Republic had the highest level of imprisonment for recorded crime in Europe after Northern Ireland, which was "a special case".
He said the scarcity of treatment for sex offenders meant that regular recommendations from judges that offenders receive treatment in prison was "verging on satirical".
Responding to the dean's suggestions, Mr Lonergan said the establishment of a therapeutic community in Mountjoy Prison could not be forced on offenders. He agreed that in some cases prison did not work, but in cases of violent criminals there was no better system in society to contain people.
A spokesman for the Minister for Justice said the Government was expanding its treatment programmes for both sex offenders and drug-abusers. The current Arbour Hill programme was being extended to the Curragh prison within months, and the government would bring in drug-free units in all the major prisons in two to three years, he said.
The Government was moving towards a restorative justice model, as seen by the publication last week of the Children Bill, he added.
Dr Valerie Bresnihan, the chairwoman of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, supported the dean's calls for restorative justice for many crimes. She said one committal in three to Irish prisons was for failure to pay fines.
Mr Donncha O'Connell, the director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, said a "massive expansion" of the provision for treatment of sex offenders in prison was needed.