A HIGH profile TD has described the atmosphere in Maghaberry Prison between authorities and republican prisoners as being on a "knife edge".
Former Irish government minister Eamon o'Cuiv was speaking after a delegation of TDs visited republican and loyalist prisoners yesterday.
The delegation included independent TDs Maureen o'Sullivan, Mick wallace and Clare Daly from the United Left Alliance.
Tensions in the prison have been high in recent months with complaints from republicans that authorities have reneged on a deal to end strip searches.
In november 2012 republican prisoners on the prison's Roe 4 wing ended an 18-month no wash protest days after the 'IRA' shot dead prison officer David Black as he travelled to work along the M1 Motorway.
Speaking after the meeting Mr o Cuiv said he believed that tensions in the prison were rising.
"Certainly the impression we got there is significant frustration on behalf of republican prisoners that the agreement put in place at the end of the dirty protest have not been adhered to," he said.
"we had a meeting with the governor and we were very forceful in what we said."
Mr o Cuiv said the TDs are concerned about the escalating situation in the prison.
"It's fair to say we left Maghaberry very worried," he said.
"It is very obvious talking to them that relationships have gone back a very low ebb and in that way we are on a knife
"We are worried that this thing would escalate."
The delegation has previously met secretary of state Theresa Villiers and Stormont justice minister David Ford.
A spokesman for the Prison Service said recent trials of alternatives to strip searches had been tested but were "evaluated as not as effective as existing processes" n CONCERNED: Eamon O Cuiv