Details of how the "unfair and unjust" gap between rich and poor has widened during the Government's term of office will be presented to the Taoiseach today.
The Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI) will present calculations showing how the last four budgets increased take-home income of the better-off more substantially than those on social welfare payments.
Father Sean Healy, from CORI's Justice Commission, will deliver the figures today to the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and Minister for Finance at an annual plenary meeting between the social partners and the Government.
CORI is part of the community and voluntary pillar of the social partners, which has negotiated successive national agreements, including the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.
Father Healy said: "The Government has one budget left during its term, and I want it to give priority to fairness so that the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness can live up to its name. We have the prosperity so far but we don't have the fairness." Government measures favoured the better-off and therefore the rich-poor gap widened. This was "unfair, unjust and bad for social cohesion," he said.
CORI's figures show that a long-term unemployed couple were £32 a week better off in 2001 than in 1997, while a couple with one earner on a pre-tax salary of £40,000 a year were £157 a week better off.
The annual disposable income of a single long-term unemployed person increased by £951 from 1997 to 2001, while that of a single person earning £40,000 annually increased by £8,667. CORI's calculations include pay increases, tax reductions and social welfare increases since 1997. It also takes into account the impact of the Government-subsidised Special Savings Incentive Scheme.