The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) today called upon the Department of Justice to authorise publication of a report on the state of Garda stations and other places of detention.
The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) sent an inspection team to Ireland last year to report on conditions for detainees in Garda stations, prisons and psychiatric hospitals.
ICCL director Mark Kelly said the department received the CPT report in March this year but has not yet authorised publication of the findings.
"In the reports on its previous visits to Ireland, this independent monitoring body criticised conditions in Garda stations, and the use of seven-day detention powers.
"If the Government is truly confident that Garda stations now provide appropriate conditions for periods of detention of up to seven days, it should publish the CPT's report, rather than keeping it under wraps" said Mr Kelly.
The CPT's findings are confidential but Mr Kelly said the Government is entitled to ask the CPT it to publish the report early.
States normally take around six months to formulate a response and states normally only authorise publication after this.
The Committee visited ten Garda stations, in Athlone, Castlerea, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Sligo. It also visited prisons at Cloverhill, Limerick, Mountjoy and St Patrick's Institution for Youth Offenders. It also visited teh Central Mental Hospital in Dublin.
The call to release the findings comes a day after the Garda Representative Association said conditions in some stations were "deplorable" with many unsuited to holding prisoners for more than 24 hours.
Irish legislation allows for suspects to be held for up to seven days without charge for serious drugs offences but the Criminal Justice Act (2007) extended this to other categories of offence.
Mr Kelly said: "Given that the Garda Representative Association thinks that conditions are unacceptable, yet the Minister [for Justice Michael McDowell] thinks they are; and we have an independent body that has reported on this it was would useful to view their findings."