A United Nations report says Ireland has the second highest concentration of poor people in the western world.

A United Nations Human Development Report has ranked Ireland as the industrialised country with the second highest concentration of poor people. However, the report does describe the Republic of Ireland as a highly desirable place to live.

The UN's findings are an embarrassment to Ireland.

The report focuses on the gap between rich and poor which is remarkably wide in comparison to most other industrialised countries. According to the report more than one in seven people in Ireland are living in poverty. Only the United States is worse.

Another finding of the reports says that Ireland has the most functionally illiterate people. As an example, it says that means 23 per cent of people would be unable to read a medicine bottle label. Ireland also has the poorest women in the western world and the second highest concentration of people unemployed for periods of longer than 12 months.

Responding to the findings, Minister Liz O'Donnell says that the UN report is based on official figures from 1995. She argues that since then, there have been dramatic improvements in the Irish economy.

A network of community activists has urged the government to act now to improve the situation of the poor or pay the price later. Fergus McCabe, Inner City Partnership, says,

If we allow the gap and the divisions in our society to grow, we will pay a huge cost down the line.

Over 2,000 people live in St Teresa's Gardens in Dublin. Most residents are under the age of 25 and eight out of 10 are unemployed. Mother of five, Pat Walsh, works mending clothes as part of a FÁS scheme. Her daughter is a single mother and recently received an excellent Leaving Certificate. She will need state help to look after her daughter if she wants to attend college. Other people at St Teresa's Gardens want the government to fulfil a long standing promise to build a community centre. This community centre could provide a childcare service for young parents who want to continue in education or get a job. Without this creche, residents say that all the government policies in the world will not reduce poverty in their area.

An RTÉ News report broadcast on 9 September 1998. The reporter is Joe Little.