The Government has been urged to transfer health policy for prisons to the Department of Health because of the high risk of transmitting infectious diseases in overcrowded prisons.
A motion was passed at the Irish Medical Organisation's a.g.m. calling for responsibility to be switched from the Department of Justice because of the high proportion of drug-addict prisoners and the danger of the spread of HIV and hepatitis C and B.
Dr Joe Barry, public health specialist with the Eastern Health Board, said that according to official figures 40 per cent of prisoners were seriously addicted to opiates. Conditions in Mountjoy Prison were hugely overcrowded, more than 750 prisoners in a building with a capacity for 500.
He said there were "serious ramifications" from other infectious illnesses, including multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. Even outside prison, up to 80 per cent of drug addicts had hepatitis C.
"We need to be very proactive. The health focus policy in a highly-charged situation like a prison is exceptionally important. The main focus of the Department of Justice is custodial care."
A former IMO president, Dr Neil Brennan, said he supported the motion but expressed concern about the Department of Health's record in dealing with people addicted to opiates or with a chemical dependency.
Speaking about patients in psychiatric hospitals who smoked, Dr Brennan, a consultant respiratory physician from Cork, said it was a "sin of neglect that they continue to allow the hospital services to continue doling out cigarettes as part of therapy".
The prison population would require "a very careful approach" if the opiate addiction problem was to be dealt with successfully.