Prisoners in the Republic are unhappy with the lack of medical and psychological services in prisons, the provisional results of a new study have found.
The study by the Centre for Health Promotion at NUI Galway shows that prisoners are dissatisfied with the limited access they have to medical staff, such as dentists, doctors, psychologists and counsellors.
The assistant academic director at NUI Galway, Ms Sharon Friel, said prisoners felt they needed greater access to counsellors to provide for their psychological well-being, especially when they first arrived in prison.
"There just isn't enough counselling in prisons, and there's only a handful of persons available on request," said Ms Friel. "A lot of prisoners would appreciate that putting them away isn't going to help."
Greater provision of dentists was an issue highlighted by many prisoners. This was probably due to the use of drugs in prison, which results in high levels of rotted teeth, according to Ms Friel.
She said the likely recommendations from the study would include the provision of more healthcare professionals in prisons and an education and training course for these professionals to help them adapt to providing prison healthcare.
The findings of the study follow the publication of the 1998 annual report on medical and therapeutic facilities within prisons. This document, obtained earlier this month by the Irish Penal Reform Trust under the Freedom of Information Act, found that the State's prison healthcare was "probably the worst in Europe".
The report recommends an "independent review of the structure and organisation of prison healthcare services".
The full report from the Galway study will be sent to the Minister for Justice in December and will be made public in March.
Detailed questionnaires on prison life and physical measurements taken from prisoners formed the basis of the study, which was commissioned by the Department of Justice.
It found that smoking rates among prisoners were extremely high and many had only taken up the habit when they entered prison.
Contrary to researchers' preconceptions the danger of the spread of serious disease in prisons following several outbreaks of tuberculosis in 1998 did not register high among prisoner concerns. They were more interested in addressing the issue of overcrowding.