Members of the Prison Officers' Association (POA) are set to meet with the Director of the Irish Prison Service this evening to discuss the events surrounding the murder of an inmate at Mountjoy jail last night.
Director of the Irish Prison Service, Brian Purcell will meet with the POA at the Prison Service Headquarters in Clondalkin at 5pm following an official request by the organisation.
Earlier POA president Jim Mitchell said the POA extended its sympathy to Derek Glennon's family and said it was seeking an urgent meeting with the Director of the Prison Service to discuss the matter.
Mr Mitchell said: "This has also been a most difficult situation for our professional and dedicated staff at Mountjoy who acted so bravely in endeavouring to have this most serious incident avoided."
Garda and prison service investigations into the murder of the prisoner at Dublin's Mountjoy jail last night are already underway.
Derek Glennon (24) was stabbed a number of times by a prisoner during a scuffle on the prison's D-wing landing just before yesterday evening's recess at 5.40pm.
The victim was taken to the Mater hospital and died a short time later. A Garda forensic examination of the scene was begun and a postmortem carried out today.
Jim Mitchell, president of the Prison Officers' Association
However, a Garda spokesman declined to comment on whether the weapon had been discovered or whether any arrests had been made.
An internal prison investigation was also under way into the attack.
Brian Purcell, director of the Prison Service, said he believed the attack could not have been prevented because it came "straight out of the blue".
Speaking on RTÉ radio this morning, he said prison staff had "reacted immediately" when the attack occured and that six or seven officers were "on the scene within seconds".
Offering his condolences to the victim's family, Mr Purcell said the governor of Mountjoy was now investigating the killing and would file a report to him in due course.
A Prison Service spokesman confirmed the dead man was serving a 10-year sentence for manslaughter and was due to be released in 2009.
Glennon, of Stanaway Road in Crumlin, Dublin, escaped from custody in October 2005 while serving a five-year prison sentence for manslaughter. He was subsequently seized and jailed for five years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Glennon had been jailed in January 2004 after he pleaded guilty to the unlawful killing of Neil King at Davitt Road on December 16th, 2002. He killed the cyclist when he was trying to avoid gardaí after being caught driving a stolen car.
While serving his sentence, Glennon was escorted to St James's Hospital by three prison officers. He was outside smoking when a man approached and pointed a gun at the officer to whom he was handcuffed. The officer was threatened, and Glennon was released.
There have been a number or security breaches in Irish prisons in the past number of weeks. Last month, a major search of the country's jails was done after an inmate phoned a radio talk show on a smuggled mobile phone.
Last week, an armed robber was mistakenly released from Mountjoy instead of a man with the same name who had committed traffic offences. He has yet to be found.