The Taoiseach has asked the National Economic and Social Forum to make the development of strategies to tackle long-term unemployment, poverty and social exclusion its main priority.
Mr Ahern told the inaugural meeting of the reconstituted, expanded NESF in Dublin Castle yesterday that its new and extended mandate would give it "a unique role to play in evaluating the effectiveness of policies which are being implemented within the framework of social partnership agreements and of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy".
The "Government will rely heavily in the next period on your advice and your evaluation of the measures which are in place to combat poverty and exclusion."
But there was some embarrassment after the Taoiseach had left, when it emerged that the secretariat of the NESF was down to one civil servant, its director, Mr Sean O hEigeartaigh. All other staff had been redeployed.
In the first working session, one trade union representative, Mr Manus O'Riordan of SIPTU, said a past strength of the NESF had been the support members received from the secretariat.
They had been given an ambitious remit by the Taoiseach, were being briefed on how to use teamworking and were being urged to examine various projects, he said.
"The one missing ingredient is the vagueness over resources."
For project teams to be effective a civil servant should be assigned to each one, he suggested. The chairwoman, Ms Maureen Gaffney, said the secretariat's strength was "at an all-time low at present, down to one person".
An employer representative, Mr Brian Geoghegan of IBEC, said he strongly agreed with Mr O'Riordan. The NESF would have to cut its cloth to suit its measure.
He suggested it would be better off embarking on a few relatively small, well defined projects at this stage.
Earlier, Mr Ahern said the NESF had already played an important role in developing social partnership in the State. It had also given a new voice at national level to the community and voluntary sectors.
He was now widening its representation to include senior civil servants and members of local authorities.
"The Government will rely heavily in the next period on your advice and your evaluation of the measures which are in place to combat poverty and exclusion," he said.
"You will be bringing your cumulative experience and insights to bear in your endeavours. I have no doubt that the new team approach will enhance the forum's ability to reach out and to judge the effects policies are having at grass roots level."
He said he had been long enough in politics to know that it was not what was being decided nationally that mattered, but how effectively those decisions were implemented on the ground.
Ms Gaffney said the forum had succeeded in the past because of its focus was on solving problems, rather than being preoccupied with ideology. It had helped central government develop new policies and identify the success or failure achieved in the delivering of those policies.