There should be greater local involvement in delivering anti-poverty measures, the agency that advises the Government on social exclusion strategies said today.
The Combat Poverty Agency (CPA) published a report today that found although policies and infrastructure to tackle poverty already exist, conflicting priorities at local and national level hamper delivery.
The Government recently allocated nearly €50 billion for measures to combat social exclusion as part of the National Development Plan 2007-2013.
CPA director Helen Johnston said integrating national and local strategies was particularly important ahead of the implementation of the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion.
"Currently at a local level, people feel that there are too many special programmes and short-term initiatives emerging from central government without local input," Ms Johnston said.
Better communication and co-ordination at central and local government level could be delivered by a national implementation group monitoring the delivery of the action plan through the City and County Development Boards, she said.
She also recommended all local authorities should develop a local social inclusion strategy.
Minister for Social Affairs Seamus Brennan launched the report saying its recommendations would be carefully considered.
He pointed out that further to the €49.6 billion funding in the NDP some €21 billion for social and affordable housing, €5 billion for health and €18 billion for education would also aid social inclusion.
The funding "will result in a greater impact being made on poverty over a 10-year period than in any comparable period in our history," Mr Brennan said.
Social welfare spending had doubled since 2001, he said, adding that Ireland had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU.
Mr Brennan said it was "well established the best route out of poverty and social exclusion is employment".
But Sinn Féin social and family affairs spokesperson Seán Crowe said a Unicef report yesterday showed that some 14 per cent of children living in poverty were from households headed by someone in employment.
The Unicef report Ireland had one of the highest rates of relative child poverty in the industrialised world.
"The Celtic Tiger economy has unquestionably generated massive wealth, but this wealth has not been redistributed equally and has certainly not filtered down to the less well off,"said Mr Crowe.
He said the Government was failing thousands of children and their families by failing to implement the measures needed to eradicate poverty.
The Unicef report found Ireland was 22nd out of the 25 countries in terms of the material well-being of children. It found child poverty remains above the 15 per cent mark in Ireland, as well as Britain and the United States.