It said that transnational corporations and other businesses can 'export' profits to Ireland, paying lower tax rates than in the country where the profit was actually made.
Christian Aid, an international development agency, includes the criticism in a new report called 'Death and taxes: the true toll of tax dodging', which names a list of countries it says are guilty of facilitating tax dodging.
The report says that the lack of transparency in Ireland's tax system allows transnational corporations to siphon wealth out of poor countries.
It says poor countries are routinely denied the tax that is rightly theirs by transnational corporations and other businesses using methods both licit and illicit to lower their tax liability.
'An international industry has grown up specifically to maximise tax efficiency or, in other words, to deny sovereign governments their income.' the report says.
'For governments in the developing world, this amounts to being robbed of their ability to improve their economies and the lives of their poorest people.'
Christian Aid says the tax breaks Ireland offers are inconsistent with the recent stepping up of its development contribution through aid.
It calls on the Government to take an international lead in helping end abuses which, the organisation claims, are having a lethal impact in the developing world.
'We predict that illegal, trade-related tax evasion alone will be responsible for the deaths of some 5.6m children under the age of five between 2000 and 2015,' says Chief Executive of Christian Aid Ireland Margaret Boden.
Read the report here.
