The Catholic bishops have appealed to people to consider higher taxes to support improved healthcare, education, income protection and social housing.
In a wide-ranging pastoral letter launched yesterday, Prosperity with a Purpose: Christian Faith and Values in a Time of Rapid Economic Growth, the bishops stress that the concept of "the common good" should be the overriding principle in determining personal, communal or national priorities.
Dr Sean Brady, the Primate and Archbishop of Armagh, said that when the bishops launched a previous pastoral letter, Work is the Key, in 1992, they had not anticipated the scale of economic growth the State has since enjoyed and the close to 11 per cent fall in unemployment.
"The great jubilee [of Jesus' birth] will be properly celebrated, not by the construction of grandiose public works, or in lavish public and private entertainments, but by practical expression to the radical equality that God has established between all human beings," the document says.
It states that the concept of the common good has a pivotal place in Catholic social teaching. "The common good is not automatically served by market forces, without at all denying their positive role. New energy and inventiveness are needed to find measures that deliver what the common good demands, where markets plainly do not."
One area where this was needed was in housing, it says. "There is probably support for stronger powers of compulsory acquisition," according to the pastoral.
It argues for giving more scope to social housing, support for voluntary organisations providing social housing and a better social mix in housing patterns.
Referring to pressures on families, the pastoral says: "In place of discriminatory arguments that `the mother's place is in the home', the fairer argument is that `each parent has a place in the home',". The pastoral urges a series of measures to support either parent with children working full or part-time in the home.
The pastoral also urges more help and social support for drug addicts and their families, members of the Traveller community, small landholders in rural Ireland, people with disabilities, prisoners, emigrants who may wish to return, refugees and immigrants.
It points out that by the standards of other small prosperous European states, Ireland has low overall taxation.
The pastoral calls for a wide debate on constitutional protection for social and economic rights, and welcomes the Labour Party's call for such an amendment on Monday.
The document also calls for greater attention to environmental protection, an increased commitment to public transport, and more support for the Third World.
Dr Jim Moriarty, an auxiliary bishop of Dublin and president of the bishops' council for social welfare, said the document was the product of wide consultation with business people, senior civil servants, voluntary organisations and the disadvantaged.
The bishops would now go back to the groups consulted and get their response to it, he said.
A more popular version would also be published and widely circulated, and a catechetical version which could be used as a basis for sermons, he said.
The consultation process had shown that the question of the values which inspired our society was very important to a very wide range of people.
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The full text of the summary of the bishops' pastoral letter is available at The Irish Times Website: www.ireland.com/newspaper/special/1999/bishops