THE auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, Dr Jim Moriarty, has warned politicians to avoid "pandering to the vested interests and politically powerful" in Irish society.
He was speaking at a conference in Dublin on social welfare and solidarity organised by the hierarchy's Council for Social Welfare.
However the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, said it was too easy to suggest that politicians had the power to eradicate unemployment, poverty and social exclusion by themselves.
"It is all too easy to call for increased social welfare benefits - and we do need increased benefits to reach the minimally adequate levels recommended by the Commission [on Social Welfare 10 years ago. But it is too easy to call for increased benefits, especially if at the same time I belong to a group who are demanding large tax concessions."
In a wide ranging speech outlining a Christian view of social welfare and solidarity with the poor, Bishop Walsh said that Ireland would not make any real progress in the battle against poverty and social exclusion "until we as Christians recognise and take seriously our responsibility in the struggle for justice, in solidarity with all the victims of injustice".
He also warned that "there is a real danger in an economy of high unemployment of allowing the law of supply and demand to dictate wage levels. It is not morally acceptable to seek to reduce unemployment - or to seek to use unemployment - by allowing wages to fall to a level at which the employee cannot maintain a decent standard of living."
He said: "The main focus of any tax cuts in the forthcoming Budgets should be on reducing or even eliminating the burden on the lowest paid".
Bishop Walsh said it was vital that facilitating unemployed people to take up jobs should continue to be on a voluntary basis. "Any suggestion of making work a condition for receiving welfare benefits should be resisted."
Dr Moriarty said that while everyone was delighted with economic growth and the creation of jobs, Ireland continued to have the highest rate of long term unemployed in the OECD, with 136,500 out of work for more than a year.
He went on to cite a recent ministerial report which said that drug misuse was closely associated with social and economic disadvantage, characterised by unemployment, high levels of family breakdown, poor living conditions and low educational attainment.