A United Nations committee has criticised the Government for failing to implement its recommendations to investigate allegations of ill treatment of women in Magdalene Laundries.

It has also called for urgent measures to improve the staffing of the Republic's prisons and to convene an independent review of the entire prison health care system.

The report underlines many achievements in the six years since the UN Committee Against Torture's previous review.

These include the creation of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the provision of community service as an alternative to imprisonment.

It also notes the 2013 McAleese Report on the State's involvement with the Magdalene Laundries and the ex gratia scheme to help women who worked in the Laundries.

However it criticises successive governments for failing to investigate allegations of ill treatment of the Magdalene women, to prosecute perpetrators and to ensure that victims have an enforceable right to compensation.

It has also called for urgent measures to improve the staffing of the Republic's prisons and to convene an independent review of the entire prison health care system.

It notes the continuing rise in the number of women prisoners and overcrowding at the Dochás Centre in Mountjoy prison, as well as in both the male and female sections of Limerick prison.

It says over 1,500 prisoners must use toilet facilities in the presence of another inmate in cells where they also eat their meals.

It also calls for an independent review of systematic deficiencies in the prison health care services, including serious under-staffing.

The committee says solitary confinement must never be applied to a person with a psycho-social disability.