An MEP said yesterday that the Republic may be in breach of the UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights, because of a lack of separate remand facilities for prisoners.
Mrs Bernie Malone (Labour) said she believed Ireland to be in breach of Article 10 of the 1966 Convention, which requires separate facilities for detained persons.
She said the discovery of the irregularity meant the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, and the Government, should make the building of a female prison a national priority.
"At present 40 female prisoners are housed on two floors at St Patrick's Institution - I am concerned the Government is in breach of the convention which Ireland ratified in 1989," she said.
She also called for the appointment of a prisons board to operate independently of the Department of Justice.