Meeting the needs of ethnic minorities will be one of the biggest challenges facing the State in tackling hardship and deprivation over the coming years, according to the head of the State's advisory body on tackling poverty.
Speaking at a function to mark the 20th anniversary of Combat Poverty, its director Helen Johnston said the barriers in working towards eliminating poverty remained as challenging today as they did in 1986.
While the numbers of people in unemployment have reduced dramatically in recent years, many long-standing issues such as poor health, disability and low education standards meant that one in five people were still at risk of poverty.
As well as this, new issues such as the challenges posed by our new multicultural society needed to be comprehensively addressed.
"At the time that the Combat Poverty Agency was founded, 17 per cent of Ireland's workforce was unemployed, annual emigration figures had reached 28,000 and almost 16 per cent of people were living in consistent poverty.
"The economic boom of recent years has reduced unemployment to 4.4 per cent and attracted an estimated 50,000 people per year to live and work in our country," Ms Johnston said.
"The environment in which Combat Poverty now operates has improved significantly, but working to eliminate poverty in Ireland remains just as challenging today as it was in 1986."
She said the agency has been the catalyst for piloting and evaluating initiatives such as community development support programmes, promoting social inclusion among local authorities and new ways of tackling educational disadvantage.
The organisation is planning events to mark its 20th anniversary, including photographic exhibitions depicting poverty and a one-day conference on welfare reform next year.
Minister for Social Affairs Séamus Brennan paid tribute to the organisation's role in continually raising awareness of the causes of poverty in Ireland and in shaping economic and social policies which have been successful in tackling the area over the past two decades.
Ms Johnston said the analysis of poverty in Ireland had established the organisation's credentials in providing independent evidence-based advice to successive governments. "This had helped the organisation play a major role in the development and implementation of the 10-year National Anti-Poverty Strategy."
She added: "We not only provide advice on anti-poverty policies to government but are distinctly unique in that we combine this work with initiatives that support activities by the community and voluntary sector and promote community development approaches."
New strains of poverty now stalk our booming land: page 16