Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said the increasing number of prisoners being committed to custody is the greatest challenge facing the Irish Prison Service.
The IPS Annual Report shows there were over 17,000 committals to prison in 2010 - an increase of over 11% on the 2009 total.
Minister Shatter said this was having a knock-on effect on the high number of prisoners on temporary release.
The report also shows that committals under sentence of less than three months increased by 27% last year.
The Department of Justice said this increase can be attributed to a rise in the numbers committed for non-payment of court ordered fines in 2010.
There were over 6,000 such committals in 2010 - an increase of 39%.
