A prisoner in Ireland has tested positive for COVID-19 for the first time.

A remand prisoner in the Dóchas Women’s Prison in Dublin tested positive yesterday.

It was part of routine testing of new committals and she had been in quarantine since she came into the prison ten days ago.

This afternoon, Fíona Ní Chinnéide Executive Director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, said the postive test "doesn’t take away from the significant success of the Irish Prison Service in keeping prisons COVD-free up to now."

"However, we are really concerned that any significant rise in prison committals in Autumn and going into winter will impact on the prisons service’s ability to keep people safe," she said.

"It is more important now than ever that all stakeholders … work together to ensure that no one is sent to prison for less serious offences and certainly not due to a lack of a bed or mental health or addiction services in the community."

She said early testing is essential in prisons because quarantine conditions in prison are "quite tough."

"They are necessary to ensure that prison remain COVID-free," she said. "It is key that the prison service keeps COVID-19 out of prisons. They have done very well so far but it is really important that testing happens early with fast results to ensure that people are not kept in what can be very severe quarantine conditions for up to 14 days."

The Dóchas centre houses 107 of the 3,700 people who are in prison in Ireland.

The Irish Prison Service said confirmation of any case of COVID-19 is a matter for NPHET or the HSE.