The highest-ever number of racist assaults was reported in the second half of last year, according to the European Network Against Racism Ireland.
Director of ENAR Ireland Shane O'Curry said that racism is a fact of everyday life for many people.
He said there are very few official statistics on racism in Ireland, there are no policies for addressing racism and no real legislation against hate crime.
Of the 165 incidents reported between July and December last year, 37 were "serious offences", according to the report.
There were 25 assaults reported, including seven resulting in injury, the highest number of assaults reported in any period to date. Two cases concerned sexual harassment, and one concerned rape.
Abuse was reported in 88% of cases.
Mr O'Curry said under-reporting of racism is extremely high.
"We have a situation now where people from every kind of background can expect racism to be a fact of everyday life for them.
"The current situation is that there are very few official statistics on racism, there is no policy for recognising and responding to racism.
"We have no hate crime legislation to speak of in this country. We know that we're only drilling into a very tiny proportion of what's being reported."
Mr O'Curry said there is a "clear link between the use of racist language and violence against all groups.
"The number of serious offences and hate crimes is alarmingly high."
Author of the report Dr Lucy Michael of Ulster University described the number of assaults in this period as "deplorable".
She said: "Given the number of academic and NGO reports on racism in Ireland over the last 20 years, it is outrageous that the State has still not developed any significant response to the problem.
"We see ongoing problems both with the recording of racist crimes by An Garda Síochána and communication with victims after reporting, as well as evidence of direct racist discrimination in a range of public services detailed in this report.
"There is a very clearly a culture of ignoring racism in our society amongst our public servants, and of perpetrating it."
