The gap between the poor and the better off is widening in spite of the economic boom, the National Economic and Social Forum (NESF) has said.
More than 20 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, it says, and the risk of poverty is increasing for women.
While the Government has a strategy to tackle poverty, some departments are failing to implement it. Neither the Budget nor the National Development Plan were in line with the anti-poverty strategy, the NESF says.
The NESF was asked to assess the Government's National Anti-Poverty Strategy (NAPS). Under the strategy, Government departments are required to take into account the impact of proposed policies on poverty.
But the NESF report on its assessment says some departments could not give any clear statement on how they had implemented the strategy. It also questions whether the NAPS strategy is a key element of Government policy-making.
"This viewpoint is formulated on our understanding that the last Budget was not fully poverty-proofed and the absence of clear evidence that reductions in poverty were a key guiding principle under the National Development Plan," the report says.
While extreme poverty has been reduced during the economic boom, the gap between people on low and high incomes has widened, it says.
It quotes a recent report by the Justice Commission of the Conference of Major Religious Superiors, which found a "dramatic" widening of the gap between the poor and the better off between 1994 and 1999.
The risk of poverty has increased for women because of the growing number of one-parent households and of women living alone, it says.
It points out that some 25 per cent of children live in households receiving below half the average income.
The study also quotes a European Commission report, published this year, which found that 21 per cent of people in Ireland live on low incomes.
This placed Ireland in joint second place, with Greece, in the EU. Only Portugal has a higher proportion (24 per cent) of its population living on a low income.
A second table, measuring the gap between the poor and the better off, also puts Ireland in second place behind Portugal.
One of the areas in which the anti-poverty strategy has failed is in combating educational disadvantage, the NESF says. The strategy has failed to raise the percentage of pupils completing second-level education up to Leaving Certificate level.
"While a contributory factor in this has been the buoyant employment opportunities for early school-leavers, it has also to be accepted that policies up to now have not been sufficiently supportive of the pupils, the families, the schools and the local communities concerned," the report says.
"Moreover, the particular problem of adult illiteracy and other quality-of-life indicators, such as healthcare and homelessness, were not included among the National Anti-Poverty Strategy targets."
Measures recommended in the report include:
Poverty-proofing of the Budget and of programmes introduced as part of the National Development Plan;
Setting targets for the reduction of child poverty;
Preparation by all Government departments of annual plans to implement an anti-poverty strategy, plus annual reports on what they have achieved.