The Minister for Justice has ordered a further report on the escape, during an outside visit, of a convicted rapist serving a nine-year sentence in Arbour Hill.
Mr O'Donoghue said the investigation was continuing and should be completed soon. "I received a preliminary report yesterday evening which was unsatisfactory. I await a further one," he said.
Following a spate of recent escapes, the director-general of the Prisons Service had set up an expert review group which had identified areas where immediate improvement was possible.
The Labour deputy leader, Mr Brendan Howlin, asked why the escape had been kept secret from the public, from Sunday until Thursday, and only released following a media inquiry.
"Is it the Minister's view that the community into which the prisoner escaped has a right to be informed immediately?" he asked.
Mr O'Donoghue said decisions on requests for escorted outings were generally made by senior officials, and in some cases were submitted for recommendation to himself. The standard procedure had not been followed in this case.
This would be examined by the director-general of the Prison Service, he added.
The question of making an announcement arising from the risk to the public was a Garda operational matter. It was not an issue for him as Minister.
The Fine Gael spokesman on justice, Mr Alan Shatter, said the Minister should accept that once he was informed that a dangerous prisoner was at large, he had a duty to make an announcement.
The Minister said that of 36 escapers only two remained at large. That was an important statistic.
"It is also important for people to remember that the number of escapes from escorted outings annually is minimal," he said.