The Justice Minister says the practice of slopping out at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin will be phased out by the end of the year.

Alan Shatter was speaking at the Oireachtas Justice Committee this morning. He says the installation of in-cell sanitation will be completed in all wings in the coming months.

Slopping out is the emptying of buckets of human waste when the cells are unlocked in prisons in the morning. Inmates without a toilet in the cell have to use a bucket or chamber pot while locked in during the night.

Minister Shatter also says he is introducing measures to free up Prison Officers from administration duty. He says the move will deliver €3.5 million in annual pay bill savings.

The Justice Minister has also renewed his promise to resume Garda recruitment but there is no timeframe for the process.

Alan Shatter says he is in negotiations with the Public Expenditure and Reform Minister to hire new officers on a modest scale to ensure the force stays above 13,000.

The Minister delayed his plans for recruitment back in April, following the rejection of the Croke Park 2 deal.

He said the the rejection of the public sector pay deal meant he did not have the funds to pay recruits. But he denied at the time that he was reneging on a promise and that he was still committed to recruiting.

However he now says it is important to have a regular intake for the force.