Almost 6,000 people die prematurely here each year because they're poor, according to the author of an all-Ireland study.
Speaking in Dublin, Dr Jane Wilde of the Institute of Public Health said death rates for all diseases among the country's poorest were two to three times higher than for the richest.
Dr Wilde was speaking at a conference on Building Healthy Communities, hosted by the Combat Poverty Agency and the Department of Health which helps fund her Institute.
She told the gathering at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham that her institute had studied deaths in Ireland during the decade up to 2001.
She said it found that the gap between richest and poorest was 'gigantic'. She estimated that if the poorest had similar death rates to the richest, we'd be saving about 6,000 premature deaths every year on the island.
She said she was truly shocked that death rates for all diseases for people in the lowest occupational group were two to three times higher than in the wealthiest one.
Meanwhile, the Director of the Combat Povery Agency called on the government to give more medical cards to poorer families.
Helen Johnston said that at the moment the income eligibility limits were quite rigid and that you'd need to be on a very low income before actually getting a card.
Ms Johnston said that if the rates were raised, more families would qualify and that would be of particular benefit to children.
The Agency stressed the importance of its pilot projects which allow people experiencing poverty to have a say in how health services are delivered.
