Social Justice Ireland has said that additional cost-of-living support must include an €8 per week increase in core social welfare benefits, rather than another universal energy credit.
The independent think tank said Ireland's most vulnerable groups need ongoing targeted support in the form of adequate social welfare rates.
The organisation's Research and Policy Analyst Susanne Rogers said that a universal energy credit is "not the best way to address the impact of rising energy costs as one-off payments will not resolve issues of income adequacy".
"The recent increase in deprivation rates among Ireland’s most vulnerable groups must guide policy in relation to cost of living supports," she said.
"Government has an opportunity to move beyond one-off measures and deliver on the Programme for Government commitment to deliver a better quality of life for all."
It comes after the Taoiseach said social welfare and pension payments would form part of cost-of-living measures to be announced before the end of the month.
Leo Varadkar said that the ministers for finance, public expenditure and social protection will meet the three coalition party leaders this week on what measures will be extended.
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"We haven't decided on any of the details of it yet," Mr Varadkar told RTÉ's This Week yesterday.
"I believe that you need an element of both universal measures to help everyone but those who are suffering the most are those who need the most help.
"And one of the things we will make a judgment call on this week is some additional welfare payments. We haven't decided the nature of those exactly; who will get them, who won't, and how much."
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Ms Rogers said: "These are households that were struggling pre-2022. So even if we take the inflation conversation out of it, these are households that haven't been able to manage in 2018, in 2019 and 2020 and then things are just getting gradually worse and the response isn’t corresponding to the difficulties."
She said the one-off measures introduced by the Government "were welcomed, but they are finished".
Ms Rogers said everyone has been impacted by the rising cost of living but "we are looking at the households who really are in crisis because of these increased costs".
