The Irish Prison Service said today its continuing search of Portlaoise maximum-security prison has yielded a total of 17 smuggled mobile phones, five SIM cards and 11 phone chargers.
The Minister for Justice Michael McDowell ordered a major search of the prison on Sunday which yielded a large haul of smuggled phones as well as drugs, needles and even a budgie.
Today Michael McDowell was heavily criticised for failing to order a search of the prison before an inmate rang RTÉ radio's Livelineprogramme from his smuggled mobile phone last week.
Fine Gael said the Minister had turned a "blind eye" to the problem of smuggling at the prison for the last five years and accused the Tánaiste of re-hashing past election commitments to make Irish prisons drugs-free in his current election manifesto.
Mr McDowell expressed confidence in the prison Governor and said someone would be be held accountable if there was "any laxity" at the prison.
"There never was any arrangement for blind-eye turning at an official level and if there was at a lower level in the organisation somebody has to be accountable for that situation," MrMcDowell said.
"The people of Ireland at the on the outside can't have a situation that the people on the inside are directing crime against them."
Yesterday officers seized at least eight smuggled mobile phones, three SIM cards, around 150 tablets, including ecstasy, a significant quantity of powdered drugs, a large amount of homemade alcohol, known as hooch, and 30 syringes, while prisoners were locked in their cells.
A budgie, believed to have been smuggled into the jail by a female visitor who concealed the bird internally in her body, is understood to have belonged to a prisoner serving a long-term jail sentence.
The search, which began yesterday morning, centred on the E1 landing which guards serious offenders such as John Gilligan and members of the Dublin and Limerick drug-trafficking gangs.
Continuing late into last night, the comprehensive search, which saw beds stripped and furniture examined, moved to the D-block cells where prisoners who work in the kitchens and prison facilities are housed.
Today the school and laundry were checked, where the extra items were found. The Irish Prison Service, however, confirmed that "no more budgies or small animals" had been found.
Fine Gael criticised the Minister's decision to order the search just two weeks before the general election saying: "He has been Justice Minister for five years. During that time he had plenty of opportunities to clear drugs from our prisons, but he sat idly by and allowed the situation to get worse".
The search was instigated following a phone call from armed robber John Daly, an inmate at Portlaoise prison, on a mobile phone from his cell to RTÉ's Livelineprogramme on Tuesday last week.