Education: Primary schools should have maximum class sizes of 15 pupils and ideally less than 12, according to an ESRI report published today.
The ESRI is also urging an increase in spending on primary education to bring it in line with spending on third-level education, on which Government spends twice as much.
Crime rates would drop, health would improve and the gap between rich and poor would narrow if children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, were immersed in rich educational environments from the age of three, the ESRI argues.
Significantly increased spending on primary education is the most effective way to tackle educational disadvantage and prevent many long-term social problems, according to the report, "Educational Expenditure: Implications for Equality" by Ms Selina McCoy and Ms Emer Smyth.
The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) has welcomed the report, stating that it reflects the arguments that the primary teachers' union has been making for the past decade.
Children drop out of the system long before entry to third level because they "either literally left the system or mentally and emotionally disengaged from formal education", the INTO stated.
"If Government is truly serious about tackling the scourge of educational disadvantage, then it must commit to a far higher and fairer level of spending in this area," the INTO said.
In the Republic, policies to counter inequalities in education date back to the 1960s, with the introduction of free secondary education. In the 1990s, a wide range of programmes has attempted to counter educational disadvantage at primary, secondary and third level.
But while the Government is spending more than €50 million on attempts to ease educational disadvantage in 2003, the programmes lack co-ordination, focus too much on schools labelled as "disadvantaged" and spend too little on early childhood education, say Ms McCoy and Ms Smith.
Many attempts have been made in the past decade to deal with inequality. The most problematic and expensive has been the abolition of tuition fees from third-level undergraduate courses.
Other interventions have included the Early Start programme for young children in disadvantaged areas, new programmes to discourage early school-leaving among teenagers and "access" programmes to bring people from "disadvantaged" backgrounds into third level.
The latest ESRI report argues that money targeted at specific areas labelled as "disadvantaged" ignore the many individual disadvantaged children in so-called middle-class schools all over the country.
While the numbers doing the Leaving Cert have nearly doubled in 20 years, those going to university still tend to come from a certain socio-economic background, the report states.
Social inequality at third level has actually worsened since the removal of tuition fees, the report adds.
Spending on primary education has doubled in the past decade, increasing to more than the funding on secondary and third-level education.
This marks some reduction over time in the disparity between spending on third-level and primary education.
However, the Republic still spends far more on third-level education, relative to primary level, compared with many other OECD countries.