The Coadjutor Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has called for the benefits of the Celtic Tiger years to be reinvested to help the economically disadvantaged in Irish society.
Speaking on RTÉ radio yesterday after the launch of the Merchant Quay centre's annual report in Dublin, Dr Martin also said that, having lived outside Ireland for 30 years, he was struck by the amount of violence and murders.
The Merchant's Quay centre caters for drug users and homeless people.
"My point is very simple: that the success of the Celtic Tiger depended on the way we invested in people and making people more resourceful.
"When things go well,we shouldn't forget those who missed out and have a right to a second opportunity."
He pointed out that there were 4,000 homeless people in Dublin, a thousand of whom were young people - and many of these were women with with children.
"There is no way that they will really be able to be brought right back into the community if the institutions that are supporting them have to scrape through every time. You need more focused assistance and financing."
Many of the murders in society today were, he added, perpetrated by organised gangs who came from a world where spreading and selling drugs in huge quantities showed "disregard for the human life of the vulnerable".
Increasingly, these gangs were tending to say that they can rule communities through violence and fear.
"If we don't say as a community, [if] we don't say this is unacceptable in Ireland, then this is a very dangerous sign," he added.