The Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, has said more needs to be done to reduce the volume of household waste produced annually.
But he added that the Government had made great progress.
Mr Roche was speaking on RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland following the publication of a report by the Environmental Protection Agency.
It found that the national recycling target was achieved in 2005 - eight years ahead of schedule.
However, the agency warned Ireland was still generating too much waste and that nearly a quarter of household rubbish remained unaccounted for.
Its latest report showed the recovery of packaging waste has exceeded EU demands.
The agency said the numbers of bring-banks, civic amenity facilities and kerbside collections are also up.
But the report identified that while Ireland is recycling more, it is generating more waste as well and the amounts going to landfill are a problem.
It found nearly a quarter of households do not have waste services or choose not to avail of them.
The fear is that much of the 200,000 tons of uncollected rubbish are either dumped or burnt.
IBEC's Donal Buckley argues three quarters of the processing of recyclable material takes place abroad.
