The proportion of people experiencing "consistent poverty" is falling, yet the gap between the rich and poor continues to grow, a new report shows.
A study by the independent body, the Economic and Social Research Institute, (ESRI), highlights widening relative income gaps, with single-parent households and the elderly most at risk of living on below half the average income.
This high rate of relative income poverty is "a serious structural problem" which needs to be tackled while resources are available, the report says.
Monitoring Poverty Trends and Exploring Poverty Dynamics in Ireland is based on data from Living in Ireland surveys, upon which most analysis of poverty in the State is based.
The research published yesterday shows a decline in "consistently poor" households, where people live on below 60 per cent of average income and are deprived of basic necessities such as a warm coat or regular nutritious meals.
Between 1994 and 1998 the number of households in consistent poverty fell from 15 per cent to 8 per cent, the report shows.
While such basic deprivation has been reduced, however, the study shows that the rate of relative income poverty has increased and is high compared to other EU member-states. It finds an increase in the numbers of people living on below half the average income from 17.4 per cent in 1994 to 20 per cent in 1998.
While cautioning that examining relative income alone is not the best way to measure poverty, the report states that "this high rate of relative income poverty is a serious structural problem that needs to be tackled while the resources are available".
Dr Richard Layte, one of the study's authors said: "What would be best is that as well as deprivation going down, inequality would remain the same or decrease. You really don't want to have the two things going in different directions, with society in general getting better off but the people at the bottom of income-distribution getting further and further away from the top."
The report also shows that poverty is often accompanied by increased psychological distress, which grows with each year the person lives in poverty.
At the report's launch yesterday, the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern, welcomed its findings that consistent poverty was almost halved between 1994 and 1998.
However, Ms Helen Johnston, the incoming director of the Government-advisory body, the Combat Poverty Agency, said the widening income inequalities shown in the report were of concern.
The full text of the ESRI study is available on the Irish Times website at: www.ireland.com