The Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori) has called on the Government to address issue of "working poor" in the Budget.
Over one in five adults at risk of poverty in Ireland is at work, while a third of all households at risk of poverty in the State are headed by a person with a job, said Cori justice spokesman Fr Seán Healy.
Cori justice spokesman Fr Healy
"These are households with incomes below € 11,000 a year for a single person, or €25,400 for a household of two adults and two children," he said. The figures are from a poverty study by the Central Statistics Office and refer to 2005.
"It is simply unacceptable that many of the 'working poor' are the only people who do not benefit from changes in the annual budget, and that Government does nothing to rectify this situation," said Fr Healy.
"The fact that the working poor issue is not being addressed adequately is totally unacceptable in a society which, for the first time in its history, has the resources to tackle these problems effectively and comprehensively."