The Irish Prison Service is suspending all family visits to inmates due to the coronavirus.

It says all physical family visits to prisons will cease from the close of business on Friday.

All future visits will be conducted using video calls.

Any physical family visit that had been booked to take place on or after Saturday March 28th has now been cancelled.

While arrangements are currently being made for the introduction of visits by video link or camera phone early next week.

The service says these electronic visits will also negate the need for visitors to gather in the visitor centres at each prison.

"This is in line with the recommendations announced this week by the Taoiseach regarding the need to people to desist from gathering in groups of more than four people", it adds.

However any professional visits remain unaffected.

The Irish Prison Service says it has made "every effort" to continue to run normal family visits for along as possible.

However it says this decision was made in the best interest of the health and safety of prison staff, prisoners and their families.

Some restrictions are already in place, which had limited all visits to prisoners to one adult per visit.

And on March 24th it was announced that restrictions on visits would limit prisoners to one 15 minute visit per week with a maximum of two adults and no persons under 18 years of age.

Detailed information on the new visit process will be published on the Irish Prison Service website.