Dermot Ahern is planning to release 300 "low-risk" prisoners wearing electronic tags to ease the pressure in Ireland's over-crowded prisons.
The justice minister's move would immediately reduce the jail population by 8%, and is aimed at lowering the risk of violence in prisons, and of injury to both staff and inmates.
Two people, a female prison officer and a prisoner, were hospitalised last week after a fight in Mountjoy.
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Eleven of Ireland's 15 prisons are now exceeding their capacity. The situation is worst in Mountjoy, which is home to 678 prisoners despite having a bed capacity of 540.
A second prisoner, David Byrne, was badly injured in the jail last week after being beaten over the head with a sock full of batteries.
Ahern will invite specialist security firms to tender for a contract to tag and electronically monitor the movements of the 300 prisoners who will be granted early release.
"The minister is keen to start a pilot project as soon as possible," a spokesman said. "It is hoped that it will go to tender in late summer. We hope it will prove beneficial for both the rehabilitation of prisoners and in terms of easing some pressure points on prison populations."
The release and monitor scheme could save up to ¤30m a year in prison costs, including a reduction in assaults. Release with electronic tags could also be used as an incentive to promote good behaviour in jail.
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The tags can be tracked by satellite or by the cellular-phone network, depending on which system is adopted in the tender process, and establish the location of any prisoner at any given time.
A prisoner on early release found to have been at the location of a serious crime, for example, could be immediately sent back to jail to serve the outstanding portion of their original sentence.
Overcrowding in the prison system has now reached crisis point.
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In Mountjoy, shower blocks are being used as overnight sleeping accommodation in some wings, with mattresses thrown on the floor at night and removed in the morning.
A wing in the prison was "locked down" for several hours after the prison officer was hospitalised last week. She was punched and knocked to the ground as she tried to break up a row between two inmates.
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On Wednesday, a group of prisoners went on a violent rampage, destroying toilets and hand basins and assaulting a prison officer.
Ahern said last week the government had been victim of its own success in the fight against crime, having "increased dramatically the number of gardai \ 3,500 gardai in the last three or four