The Government has set up a programme to improve living standards in 25 of the most deprived urban areas in the State.
Specific localities in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Bray, Drogheda and Dundalk are to be included in the Revitalising Areas by Planning, Investment and Development (RAPID) Programme.
It will provide funding for health, education, housing, childcare, sporting facilities, youth development, employment, anti-drugs measures and policing.
An initial sum of £5 million has been allocated to set up the programme during the next three months.
The Minister of State with special responsibility for the National Drug Strategy, Mr Eoin Ryan, said funds would go to the programme from the National Development Plan's £15 billion for social inclusion.
But Mr Ryan said the total amount for the three-year programme was "difficult to cost" because funds would be assessed when communities sent in plans for services.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said the State had to become more than a money provider for local regeneration initiatives. "We have to refocus our efforts on communities which have experienced concentrations of disadvantage."
Local State agencies, residents' groups, local partnerships and other organisations will come together in an area implementation team to draw up plans. Two further programmes are to be set up in provincial towns and rural communities.
Mr Aidan Lloyd, policy developer with the Community Workers' Co-operative, said he welcomed the programme but it contained no means of developing community organisations. "It stresses the facilities and services to be developed but that needs a viable community organisation to work," Mr Lloyd said.
Mr Padraig Malone, assistant director of the Limerick Centre for the Unemployed, said he was hopeful the programme would improve the quality of life and employment potential for people in disadvantaged areas. "The percentage of unemployed is geographically concentrated and that's where this kind of investment is helpful," he said.