Friends First economist Jim Power has said many people are questioning their quality of life, despite the unprecedented economic prosperity of the last few years.
In his quarterly economic outlook, the economist says the Irish economy is growing strongly and providing lots of jobs, but many of these are in relatively low productivity activities, and many jobs are being replaced by lower paid jobs elsewhere.
Mr Power says this could explain the relatively disappointing take from income tax in the Exchequer figures. He also fears that the construction and public sectors cannot keep up their current rates of growth.
The economist also believes that the skills of many foreign workers are not being fully used, as many are being recruited into 'transient and relatively low quality areas' of the economy. He calls for new support structures to integrate foreign workers fully into the economy and society.
On housing, Mr Power calls for a radical change in planning to make more of the new housing supply, such as apartments, more suitable for families.
His outlook predicts that house prices will rise by 10% this year, while interest rates will climb by 1.5 percentage points over the next 18 months.
