The right to accommodation and increased access to health services will be among the key demands of community and voluntary groups in talks on a new social partnership deal.
Announcing its demands yesterday, the Community Platform, representing 26 organisations, said the talks, which begin tomorrow, were about far more than pay increases.
Ms Frances Byrne, a spokeswoman for the group, said pay issues would probably dominate private discussions between the trade unions, employers and the Government.
"But we hope that will not overshadow very important negotiations about prioritising people who don't have access to employment," she said.
Mr Donal Toolan, also a spokesman for the group, said it had to be recognised that the process was not just about pay.
Issues such as housing, accommodation and healthcare were connected and hugely important for people faced with "the inequity around who gets access to what", he said.
Benchmarking and pay would have to "go into the pot" with other issues before the parties could arrive at an agreement with "equality at the centre".
The group is part of the "community and voluntary pillar" of the social partners, who meet in Dublin Castle tomorrow to begin talks on a successor to the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF), which expires shortly.
Employers, workers, farmers and the Government make up the other social partners.
Another key issue for the Community Platform will be equality for women, people with disabilities, Travellers and asylum-seekers.
It is also seeking "a fair deal" for people on social welfare, substantial increases in child benefit, an end to adult and child poverty and an increase in the minimum wage.
Ms Byrne said the group had identified areas in which the Government could save money to be reinvested in anti-poverty and social inclusion measures.
It should also borrow money to fund "key social infrastructure" under the National Development Plan, she said.
She acknowledged, however, that these steps would not provide sufficient funds to pay for the measures to be demanded by the Community Platform.
An increase in income tax might not be politically feasible in the short term, she said, but the Government "could stand over taxes on wealth".
The Government could review its timetable for a reduction in corporation tax to 12.5 per cent. There was no evidence that all the foreign direct investment would vanish out of the country as a result, she said.
Senator David Norris, who chaired yesterday's event at which the group set out its demands, said if ever there was a time to raise taxes, this was it.
The Government was potentially at the start of its term, and if people were told their taxes were being raised to meet objectives like those of the Community Platform, they would accept that.
Organisations represented by the group include Age Action Ireland, the Forum for People with Disabilities, the Irish Penal Reform Trust, the Irish Refugee Council, the National Women's Council, the Irish Traveller Movement and the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed.
