The revolving door of the Irish prison system will come to an end with the opening of the Midlands Prison, according to the Minister for Justice.
Mr O'Donoghue officially opened the new prison in Portlaoise yesterday. When fully operational it will accommodate 515 inmates.
"For the first time in 25 years we are approaching the light at the end of the tunnel. We are now reaching the stage where we can accommodate all those sentenced by the courts for the full duration of their sentences," he said.
"This investment will ensure that the scandal of the `revolving door', which we lived with for so long, will have been brought to a halt - for good."
The prison, built at a cost of £43 million on a site adjacent to Portlaoise Prison, has four three-storey wings of mainly single-cell rooms. Recreation rooms are located at the end of each landing. Thirty prisoners are currently being accommodated in the prison and this will increase in the coming months, with some prisoners due to be transferred from Mountjoy, which is to undergo a complete refurbishment.
The prison is equipped with the most modern prison technology, advanced locking systems and CCTV. An educational wing, including science labs, metalwork facilities and an art room, is provided, as well as a gymnasium, chapel, medical unit and counselling rooms.
However, commenting on yesterday's opening, Mr Patrick O'Dea, spokesman for the probation and welfare officers' branch of IMPACT, said the Government had yet to allocate probation officers to the new prison and this would curtail rehabilitation programmes. He said the union was at "loggerheads" with the Government over its prison building programme and believed the offending behaviour of inmates or their drug or alcohol abuse was not being addressed.
"We are asking the Minister to show the same commitment to alternatives to custody and to develop the probation and welfare service, which is in a shambles," Mr O'Dea said.