The Republic should adopt a "minimum income standard" so that people are not left below the poverty line, the Combat Poverty Agency has said.
The standard should be 50 per cent of average weekly household income, which last year was £126.
It said a minimum income standard for children should also be adopted by the Government.
This should meet the minimum costs of child-rearing of £36 per week.
The agency said that welfare payments should be increased in line with such minimum income standards over a "defined timespan". This should be agreed as part of social partnership and included as a target within the National Anti-Poverty Strategy.
Mr Jim Walsh, policy analyst with the agency, said it was 15 years since the last benchmark for a minimum adequate income had been agreed.
Two recent minimum-income benchmarks suggested the majority of welfare payments were inadequate.
"Recent Government policy has played down the contribution of welfare payments in tackling poverty," he said. "Social welfare is characterised as a mechanistic method of income distribution. Hence the current emphasis on ensuring better wages for those in low-paid work and higher pensions for the retired.
"However, this approach largely ignores the needs of those unable to work, who rely on income support to ensure minimum living standards," he said.
The agency's recommendations are in its submissions to the adequacy benchmarking and indexation working group, set up under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.