The Prison Officers' Association has rejected a plan by the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, to introduce mandatory drug testing of prison inmates.
At the POA conference in Ennis, Co Clare, the POA said prisons were already flooded with drugs, and no inmate had ever been prosecuted for drugs offences.
Mr McDowell told the conference he wanted to bring in electronic tagging and a system of restorative justice as alternatives to jail. But the POA has accused him of presiding over a revolving door system for inmates.
Mr McDowell also told the conference that he plans to increase the number of prison places by 800 to bring the total number to 4,000.
Mr McDowell also said that plans are well advanced for a new court complex with new courtrooms and facilities for victims and their families to be built at Parkgate Street in Dublin.
And Mr McDowell said that judges should be able to impose partly suspended sentences whereby an inmate is freed early from prison on licence but put back in jail if he steps out of line.
The minister also said that people found guilty of public order offences should face heavy and immediate fines rather than imprisonment, and should only be jailed if they do not pay.
