Asylum-seekers should not be left to survive on direct provision payments for unlimited periods, the chairwoman of the Refugee Information Service has said.
Ms Nora Nowlan was critical of the fact that asylum-seekers remained on direct provision for periods of over two years while their applications for asylum were dealt with.
The period should be limited to six months.
She said people on the payment for long periods, without a right to work, experienced a lack of control over their own lives and deep feelings of isolation.
Under the Government's "direct provision" policy, asylum-seekers are vhoused with bed and board, and given a weekly "comfort" allowance of €19.05 (£15) per adult and €9.52 (£7.50) per child.
Speaking at the launch of the Refugee Information Service's first report, Ms Nowlan also said families in direct provision found it difficult to maintain normal family life and experienced problems with children when they had no control over the purchase and preparation of food.
The report makes several recommendations including the establishment of a translation/interpretation service that can be accessed easily by people working with refugees and asylum-seekers, especially health professionals.
It further recommends that training and information on issues relating to asylum-seekers and refugees be given to all employees in the public service.
In addition, it calls for a consistency of approach to issues such as accommodation across the State.
"The situation currently exists whereby persons with residency living in Dublin can apply to go on the local authority housing list, but those living outside of Dublin cannot," it says.
It also recommends that all applicants, whether in the asylum or immigration process, should be provided with a temporary resident card.
The RIS has dealt with 5,000 queries from refugees and asylum-seekers from 54 countries since 1999.
Most were seeking information on residency and employment.
At present the service has five outreach clinics in Dublin and it is hoped to extend clinics to the regions this year.
The report was launched by Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole.