THE Government is failing impoverished people and putting lives at risk through its failure to fulfil its commitments to Third World Aid, the Conference of Religious of Ireland Justice Committee said yesterday.

A RECORD number of 76,954 houses were built in Ireland last year - up almost 12% on 2003, Housing Minister Noel Ahern confirmed yesterday.

AN overhaul of social housing policies is urgently needed, CORI (the Conference of Religious of Ireland) has warned.

Despite their best efforts, co-op housing associations and voluntary and non-profit organisations just simply cannot keep up with the pace of demand for social housing.

The Government should use the super-healthy Exchequer funds to splash out €1.5bn extra a year on social spending, it was claimed today.

Christmas could come early today for tens of thousands of people forgotten by Ireland’s Celtic Tiger boom when Finance Minister Brian Cowen unveils his first Budget.

Two economists from NUI Galway are calling for the development of a new National Fairness Strategy to help build a future without poverty and inequality.

A ORGANISATION campaigning for a fairer society yesterday warned that widening the tax band for low income earners in the next Budget would achieve nothing.

The chairman of the CORI justice Commission Father Sean Healy has said narrowing the rich-poor divide is the greatest challenge facing the new Minister for Finance.

IRELAND has one of the widest gaps between rich and poor in the EU, according to a report published yesterday by the European Commission.

THE first concrete steps to provide an alternative coalition in the next general election sparked a combative response from the Government parties yesterday.

NEW proposals to reform the Government's rent supplement scheme last night sparked fears that already overburdened council housing lists would be overwhelmed completely.

THE BUDGET has widened the gap between rich and poor by 294 a week and this trend must be reversed, the CORI Justice Commission insisted yesterday.

THE Government is being urged to raise the total tax take in the upcoming Budget and bring it closer to the EU average.

THE gap between rich and poor is wider than ever, according to a study published today.

THE prospects of the partnership agreement being accepted were boosted yesterday when a major religious group officially threw its weight behind the deal.

THE Government has widened the gap between rich and poor by €266 a week following the latest Budget announcements.

IRELAND cannot continue to demand infrastructure and services comparable with other EU countries without being prepared to endure a bigger tax take, the country’s religious have warned.

The Conference of Religious of Ireland today releases a damning report on the Government's budgetary policies.

A religious group is criticising the new Government-subsidised savings scheme as "deeply unfair", and serves to widen the gap between rich and poor.