A commission on the status of men was ruled out by the Minister of State for Justice, Ms Mary Wallace.
She said that while she accepted there were serious problems facing men in today's society, she did not see a commission as being the way to deal with such problems.
"The difficulties faced by men are diverse and require varied solutions but men continue to hold a dominant position in our society," Ms Wallace added.
"Not only do I not see a need for such a commission, but I believe that it would give the wrong signal about equality between men and women and would be wasteful of time and resources."
Ms Wallace said she had listened with some interest to the arguments advanced in recent weeks for such a commission.
She accepted that there were serious issues which she did not wish to belittle and recognised that the economic and social developments of the past 20 years or so had had some particularly adverse effects on men.
But the establishment of a commission would seem to suggest that, in some way, men stood at a disadvantage in society.
"This I cannot accept."
She was replying to Mr Brian Hayes (FG, Dublin South West), who said in putting forward the suggestion he was open to other ideas.
He said he had chosen the issue of a commission on the status of men because the original commission on the status of women in 1970 had drawn together much of the national and international work on the issue of pay and conditions.
He said that the proposed commission could investigate the issue of men's place in education, male suicide and health.