Almost a third of the prison places announced by the Minister for Justice might not now become available, following the IRA bombing, reports John Maher, Drugs and Crime Correspondent.
Ms Owen's scheme was for 278 places to be added to the existing 2,174 in the prisons system over the next 18 months. However if the Government decided the IRA ceasefire was unlikely to be revived, the number of new spaces provided by the scheme would be reduced to 198.
Eighty of the new places were to have been provided at Portlaoise prison by moving 25 republican prisoners from there to a secure area in the partially built prison at Castlerea, Co Roscommon. The move would have freed space currently used at Portlaoise to keep the republicans segregated from other prisoners.
Department of Justice sources said the impact of Friday's bomb was still being assessed, but it was safe to assume that the plan to move the 25 republicans to Castlerea was now "under review".
In addition, nine IRA prisoners who were to have been released from Portlaoise on Saturday have been kept in custody because of the bomb.
