Prison officers are calling for protection against attacks.
The Prison Officers Association has described jails as the most dangerous places of work in the country and say knife attacks by inmates have increased to critical levels.
The POA says that the murder of a guard is perhaps the only event that would prompt the response urgently needed.
The union believes that the prison service is not dealing properly with the problem that has seen 6 of its members being attacked in a 6 week period.
In Dublin two officers were attacked at Tallaght hospital in February while last month two guards were stabbed at Mountjoy.
Members of the POA are calling for mandatory consecutive sentencing for inmates convicted of attacking staff.
They had previously asked to be supplied with stab vests and for more officers to be assigned to wings of prisons housing the most unpredictable prisoners.
