Liam Lawlor will spend up to 16 hours a day locked in his cell under the arrangements in the wing of Mountjoy Prison where he is being held.
The authorities, concerned that the TD might be attacked by other prisoners, have placed him in the F6 wing of the fourstorey health care unit. The wing is temporarily empty and Mr Lawlor is in a four-bunk cell usually used by trusties.
The area is under constant medical and prison officer observation. Prison authorities decided it was the safest place in the jail for the TD.
Initially it was thought that he would be sent to the Training Unit, at the back of Mountjoy in Glengarriff Parade. Mr Tony Gregory, the most recent member of Dail Eireann to reside in Mountjoy, was held there.
He spent almost a fortnight there in October 1987 after refusing to sign a bond to keep the peace. He had been arrested during a street protest on behalf of the women street traders of Moore Street/Henry Street.
However, while Mr Gregory was described as popular with his fellow inmates, there is concern that Mr Lawlor could be at risk of an attack.
The health care unit was refurbished three years ago and is the only section of the prison with in-cell sanitation. The cells have small television sets, introduced as an anti-suicide measure some years ago.
However, the "lock down" regime in the main prison also extends to the health care unit. Prisoners are locked in their cells from 7.30 p.m. to 7.40 a.m. They are let out briefly to collect their breakfast, which they eat in their cells.
They are then let out until 12.30, when lunch is again eaten in cells. They are allowed out between 2.00 and 4.00p.m. and again in the evening between 5.20 and 7.30.
There are no toilets in the cells in the main Mountjoy Prison, and the prisoners empty their waste buckets each morning in a process known as "slopping out".