Green Junior Minister Mary White has said the new Thornton Hall prison should see an end to the practice of slopping out in prisons.
Speaking at the launch of the Irish Human Rights Commission's Annual Report for 2009, the Minister for Integration said it was time to move on from the Victorian practice.
The first phase of the North Dublin prison is due to open in 2014.
The IHRC is asking the Government to improve prisons and ratify the Convention on Disability ahead of a UN audit on Ireland's human rights record next year.