Irish society is currently operating on auto-pilot, where there is no longer a shared set to values to hold society together, according to sociologist and director of the Ceifin Institute, Father Harry Bohan.
He was delivering the opening address last night at the Values and Ethics annual conference in Ennis, Co Clare.
Addressing more than 1,000 delegates, Father Bohan said: "We are currently part of a society that seems to live outside a moral and ethical framework. The only values that seem to matter are market values and that needs to be addressed urgently."
He said: "Many of us are confused, angry and cynical. We all know that whether it is at home or at school, at work or in our communities, we can only survive on the basis of trust and yet our society seems to be experiencing a fairly serious breach of trust.
"This leaves us with a huge challenge, not just to identify the key issues but much more importantly to work out together what we can do about restoring trust."
It was "an appropriate time for people from a cross-section of Irish society to come together to debate the place of values and ethics in our society and what difference each one of us can make".
