Participation by Irish people in voluntary organisations has been declining since the 1950s, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the Dáil.
He said the taskforce he had established on civic partnership was expected to complete its final report by Easter.
"Obviously there are more people at work, more people commuting, and more people with young families who commute long distance. Is this the reason people have disengaged or are there other reasons?
"I was posing a question so that we can look at it and come forward with a report which examines what we can do if people have disengaged and are not connected with their localities or sports, cultural or historical clubs, as they might have been in the 1950s when figures were high.
"These figures have declined since the 1950s, and there has never been a bounce-back period in the past 50 years."
Mr Ahern said the taskforce had issued a very good document based on its travels throughout the country and on over 1,000 submissions. This had now gone into a format on the taskforce's website and also into wide circulation.
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said he was particularly interested in the Taoiseach's remark that "for all our new wealth, we are much poorer".
He understood where the Taoiseach was coming from in making that statement.
"However, does he accept that the quality of the delivery of many of our public services is the reason people feel they are poorer in this new, more affluent society?
"For example, does he agree that if a person is caught driving to and from work for 1¾ hours, or he or she is caught on the M50 toll bridge, he or she will not be particularly minded to train the under-9s in the evening?"
Mr Ahern said there were issues for everybody, including the Government. "I do not accept services are poorer. When active citizenship was at its height, we had very few services. Class sizes in schools numbered over 50 in most part of the country, whereas now they are under 20.
"Parts of the country, mainly in Dublin and other cities, have bottlenecks, but there are huge stretches of roads across the country."
He said when active citizenship was at its height, central government put very little money into the community, whereas €300 million were now invested annually in various community activities.
