Amnesty International and the Irish Penal Reform Trust have strongly criticised the Department of Justice's refusal to allow them access to Irish prisons for a research project on racism.
Amnesty's Ireland director, Mr Seán Love, said their exclusion for such a "low grade" mission was totally unacceptable and has left them wondering what the authorities are trying to hide.
The Department has rejected these criticisms, saying it refused permission for the research in four prisons only because a similar project was already being conducted by the National Training and Development Institute.
However, both Amnesty and the Irish Penal Reform Trust yesterday said they were not satisfied that their joint request for access should be turned down on this basis.
Mr Love said the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, by remaining steadfast in his denial of access to Amnesty had "inadvertently succeeded in focusing much greater attention on the prisons.
"What has Ireland got to hide? What does anyone reading this know about Ireland's prison system or prison policy? We hear damning reports from other agencies of the inappropriate detention of large numbers of mentally ill people in our prisons, of the drug culture in our prisons, of the suicide problem in our prisons."
Mr McDowell quite legitimately lectured the Irish Catholic Church about the lack of transparent and accountability in its handling of clerical abuse cases, Mr Love said. "He should look at his own Department, which must be the most secretive and paranoid institution in the State. And they cannot hide everything behind the "interests of national security'," he added. Mr Love said Amnesty has been granted access to prisons in Nigeria, the UK, Germany, Russia and Afghanistan. Countries which have denied it access include Turkey, China, Egypt and Israel.
A spokesman for the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT), which has conducted prison research in the past, said it was surprised and disappointed at the Minister's refusal. The reasons for this "do not fully add up", he said. The trust "upholds the principle of independent access to the prisons system to ensure compliance with international standards", he added.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice rejected the suggestion that it had something to hide. He said the current study was commissioned following an open tender process started two years ago. The move showed a recognition that racism exists in prisons as in all walks of life, and was a progressive step to address the problem. "It's not a question of denying access to prisons to people. There's already a study ongoing on this matter and the findings will be made available to both Amnesty and the Irish Penal Reform Trust, so there's nothing to hide," he added.
The current study, commissioned in June 2001, is being carried out only in Wheatfield prison in Co Dublin, whereas Amnesty and the IPRT had proposed visiting Mountjoy and Cloverhill prisons in Dublin as well as Cork and Limerick prisons.
There are currently about 220 non-Irish prisoners incarcerated in the Republic representing 40 nationalities.
The largest groups are Britons and South Africans, with smaller numbers of Chinese and Nigerian nationals.