The absence of legislation dealing with the detention of mentally handicapped people in psychiatric hospitals has been criticised by a UN committee.
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights also says the increase in tobacco use is the single most important health problem facing the State.
Its report criticises the absence of legislation on the rights of physically disabled people. It calls on the Government to publish a rights-based Disability Bill and to "speed up the enactment of legislation relating to the human rights of the disabled, the mentally handicapped, including their detention, and to enact the legislation to combat discrimination affecting the Traveller community".
It complains that social welfare benefits are below the poverty line and that child support payments are "not sufficient to cover the cost of bringing up a child".
It says the increase in tobacco use "is the single most important contributing factor to the disease burden facing Ireland". The State's responses "have been inadequate to deal with this problem".
It says it is concerned about the State's alcohol problems, which have also not been addressed.
Much of the report is about justice and rights, and the committee recommends that economic, social and cultural rights be included in an amendment to the Constitution.
It calls on the Government to consider the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination as quickly as possible.