The publication of the second annual report by the Inspector of Prisons has been delayed for at least nine months due to concerns that parts of it might be defamatory.
The report by retired High Court judge Dermot Kinlen, which is critical of the Department of Justice and the Irish Prisons Service, was to be published last summer. But officials sought legal advice from the Attorney General on its contents.
The delay has been heavily criticised by prisoner rights groups, with calls for the office of the inspector to be completely independent of the Department of Justice and the Irish Prison Service.
But the Minister for Justice is anxious that the report should be published. The department initially asked the inspector to amend the sections considered defamatory by the Attorney General. He refused to do this and also refused to agree to the publication of the report with the sections omitted from it.
An independent barrister has redrafted the sections in question and Mr Justice Kinlen is considering the redraft.
Rick Lines, executive director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, said the inspector was effectively being prevented from publishing his findings on the Irish prisons system.
"His ability to comment publicly is completely at the whim and behest of the Minister for Justice," Mr Lines said. "His report cannot be published unless it is approved and signed off by the Minister or the Department of Justice." He said the position of inspector should be established as being entirely independent of the department and the Irish Prisons Service.
A spokesperson for the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said he was "keen to receive and publish a fair, professional report, as the inspector is mandated to do, but he is constrained from publishing elements which he is advised by the Attorney General, are defamatory".
Appointed in 2002, Mr Justice Kinlen's first annual report in July 2003 was highly critical of aspects of the prison system, and of the culture within the Department of Justice.
He described the department as having a "mindset of power and control".
"It has gone deeper into a bunker since the Freedom of Information Act. 'If at all possible put nothing in writing' is a definite mantra." He criticised both the Prison Service and the department for being "slow to provide any information" to him.
"The fact that they wanted me to take six months off to read myself into the job and wanted me to go on a tour of Western Australia and possibly New Zealand shows their peculiar mindset," his report stated.
"While many interpretations will be put on these offers, I took them as meaning that I was not to do any real work."