Social Justice Ireland has said a lack of investment in services here is putting our economic recovery at risk.

The organisation said the focus of the next programme for Government needed to be on spending on infrastructure and services in areas such as housing, health, child care, and rural broadband and education.

The think-tank’s 2016 socio-economic review advocates the allocation of greater resources to achieve the dual goals of improving the country’s business and social environments.

Policy analyst Michelle Murphy said we were running the risk of falling significantly behind our European counterparts.

She said: “Ireland is suffering a chronic lack of investment. We have the second lowest in the European Union (and) if we doubled our level of investment, we’d still be the second lowest,” she said.

“This threatens our economic and social stability. It’s a huge problem as our population both grows and ages in the coming decades.”