The Minister for Justice last night expressed concern that two prisons he had formally opened in the last five months at Cloverhill and Mountjoy still were not able to accept inmates for inmates because of defects.
Mr O'Donoghue said he was concerned at these "unanticipated difficulties", and steps were being taken to ensure that they were quickly rectified.
He had spoken to the Director-General of Prisons, and arrangements were being made to have urgent meetings with the contractors this weekend. He expected to have a report on the matter on Monday morning.
The State's first £26 million remand prison at Clover Hill in west Dublin has been experiencing problems with the audio-visual system that opens and closes the security gates. This has had to be overridden manually.
There are also difficulties with some of the wiring and sprinkler system. It is understood that the computer is registering non-existent alarms and fires in the prison. A fault in the sprinkler system has resulted in some cells being flooded.
Cloverhill, which is beside Wheatfield Prison, was formally opened by the Minister on June 1st. It has accommodation for 450 remand prisoners. It is laid out in two five-storey blocks and includes a special assessment unit.
There will be a staff of about 300 officers. It will hold prisoners in single, double and treble cell accommodation, depending on the length of time they are in prison awaiting trial.
The prisoners can be led from the jail through an underground tunnel to the new courthouse just outside the perimeter wall. The courthouse has rooms for District, Circuit and High Court proceedings, which will greatly reduce the need for daily escorting of prisoners to court appearances.
It is estimated it will save the State more than £6 million a year in costs and overtime payments to guards.
The new £13 million women's prison at Mountjoy, which was opened six weeks ago, is understood to have fire regulation problems, but these are not thought to be too serious and it is hoped to have them sorted out quickly. This prison will hold 80 inmates.
Responding to an RTE report, the Director-General of the Prisons Service, Mr Sean Aylward, also said he was concerned about the delays at Cloverhill.
In a statement last night he said these delays were "not anticipated when the new prison was handed over to the Department by the contractor last June". The outstanding works still had not been completed to the point where the prison could accommodate inmates.
He said urgent meetings would be held with the contractor over the weekend with a view to resolving all outstanding problems immediately.
Fine Gael last night called on the Minister to explain how this "litany of defects" was allowed to occur, which had prevented the commissioning of Cloverhill, five months after Mr O'Donoghue had formally opened the prison.
The party's spokesman on justice, Mr Jim Higgins TD, said: "One could appreciate one or two minor problem areas in view of the scale of the project. However, the litany of major defects is incredible and indefensible."
He said the taxpayer was entitled to know why the security gates were defective, the computer system was not working properly, the sprinkler system had problems, the wiring was shoddy and dangerous and the floor surface problem was still not rectified.
"The Minister's logic is also questionable, opening a prison in advance of it being ready for occupation and without a clean bill of health," said Mr Higgins.
Prisoners at Cloverhill will have a comprehensive range of support facilities, including education in life skills, computer skills, physical education, medical counselling, library, chaplaincy and a range of indoor recreational activities.
The assessment unit will house 50 prisoners who will undergo evaluation before being transferred to other prisons.
The completion of Cloverhill will be followed by the building of the new midlands prison at Portlaoise to hold 51 inmates.