The Irish Prison Service has confirmed it is investigating a complaint, after a female solicitor says she was told to remove her bra in order to visit a client in prison.
The incident is alleged to have happened at Dublin's Cloverhill Prison in June of last year.
The solicitor was asked to take off her shoes, jewellery and jacket after an alarm sounded as she passed through a security scanner.
However, when the alarm sounded again she says she was instructed by a group of male prison officers to take off her bra.
Aoife Moore is political correspondent with the Irish Examiner, who has seen the written complaint to the Irish Prison Service.
She told The Pat Kenny Show: "She says that they basically told her 'If you want to see your client you're going to have to take your bra off'.
"And she felt so under pressure and so embarrassed at the time that she did that - but my understanding is there is supposed to be a female prison officer there to ensure that they can be frisked at security.
"She was so embarrassed and humiliated in front of a male senior counsel and four male Guards that she went into the bathroom and took the bra off.
"Then she had to go into the meeting with her client and the senior counsel with no bra on.
"She says, in her complaint, that the senior counsel was so embarrassed that he actually offered her his jacket to put on around her to try and help cover her up.
"The most stark thing was that she said she went back to her office, to her law firm, explained the situation to her superiors - and she found out that the week before, her male colleague had gone to the same prison to visit the same client.
"He had gone through the security monitors three times and it beeped each time - no such request was made of him.
"And even though it continued to beep when he went through it he was allowed in to see the client".
The Irish Prison Service says it does not comment on internal matters but confirms "a complaint was received and investigated."
The Law Society also says it cannot comment on any individual solicitor or scenario.
But adds it has "regular engagement with the Irish Prison Service about matters of mutual concern.
"The Law Society has previously, in recent years, raised concerns around security protocols in operation in prisons and their particular impact on female legal advisors".
