The Tanaiste has defended Government policies from criticism by the Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI) over growing income inequalities.
Ms Harney said she did not accept this week's analysis by CORI's Justice Commission, which found the Government's economic measures had unfairly favoured the better off. CORI is part of the community and voluntary pillar of the Social Partners that have negotiated successive national agreements, including the current Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF).
It produced calculations this week to demonstrate that the "unfair and unjust" gap between the rich and the poor had widened during the Government's term in office. Its figures followed a recent report by the Economic and Social Research Institute that also identified growing income inequalities.
CORI was among representatives of the four pillars of social partnership who met Government officials and the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and Minister for Finance yesterday at an annual plenary meeting. The gathering at Dublin Castle was one of the regular stock-taking meetings to review progress under the PPF.
"As the Taoiseach said, he was in a country for the last few days which really has a two-tiered society, where some people don't have access to water, basic food or any kind of reasonable standard of living," Ms Harney said, referring to Mr Ahern's trip to Brazil.
"Everybody's situation in Ireland has dramatically improved over the last three years. The most effective way of combating poverty is through equipping people with the skills for employment."
Ms Harney emphasised that unemployment had decreased from 11 per cent to 3.7 per cent during the Government's term. Long-term unemployment had fallen from nearly 100,000 to just over 20,000.
She added: "I accept that there are still many people finding it extremely difficult to cope, and that's why the concentration both in terms of the tax changes that are necessary must be towards those at the bottom in our society". Ms Harney said she wanted everyone on the minimum wage to be taken out of the "tax net".
"We don't have a perfect society, but things are much, much better now economically than they were, and the focus has to be now on what I'd call quality-of-life issues, putting in place a good public transport system, a health service that delivers healthcare to those that need it, when they need it, and not just to people that have private health insurance or the means to access a good standard of health care," she said.
Responding to Ms Harney's comments, Father Sean Healy of CORI said he had lived in Nigeria and did not need lessons in what constituted abject poverty.
He accepted that the country had done "extraordinarily well" and everyone was benefiting. However, it was also clear that groups were being left behind. After the meeting, Mr Ahern said: "What we have to do is to try to keep economic growth as strong as we can. If we can do that it will continue to generate employment, attract inward and indigenous investment. All of that gives us the resources to continue to help those who are less well off in society."
The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, acknowledged the economic environment had become more challenging, growth was slowing and Irish infrastructure was under pressure.