The Taoiseach has launched a new project to overcome the interdepartmental barriers preventing effective measures to tackle unemployment and social exclusion in extremely deprived urban areas.
Mr Ahern admitted that until now governments had failed to deal with poverty in these areas.
He was speaking to a specially convened meeting of heads of government departments, city and county managers, the Garda Commissioner and other senior public servants at Dublin Castle yesterday.
He said one of the State's main objectives since its foundation had been "the relief of poverty and the equalisation of opportunity for all our people".
"As we approach the new millennium, with national macroeconomic indicators more positive than I have ever seen in my lifetime, we must ask why we are not making a better fist of it, in the interests of the people we serve."
He said the new project, proposed by Mr Chris Flood, the Minister of State for local development, was based on a study of four very deprived areas: Dublin's north-east inner city; the "canal communities" of the south innercity - including Fatima Mansions, St Teresa's Gardens and Dolphin House; Jobstown in Tallaght and Togher in Cork.
This research showed "an unacceptable, sometimes shocking, level of deprivation and dependency in these communities. These are our fellow citizens, for whom we are responsible, living in these conditions.
"Despite the dedicated efforts of many individuals and agencies, something is clearly missing in the way we have approached the problem up to now.
"One factor inhibiting the effectiveness of the State's collective endeavour is that each individual organisation pursues its own brief. There is often no overarching vision. All too often, departments and agencies ignore what others are doing that affects their customers or the way they do business." He said it did not come naturally to Government agencies "to plan in an integrated way for local areas".
"We need urgently much closer working relationships between the statutory organisations which are active in these areas. Agencies must also take more account of the real needs and experiences of end-users when designing and planning services."
He asked the civil servants for their full support to implement the "Integrated Services Project" to improve the delivery of services in these disadvantaged areas. There was "no more important or urgent example" of the need to cross inter-departmental barriers than this initiative.
The Taoiseach went on: "I have no time for those who complain that co-ordinating with others leaves them no time for their own work. Co-ordination is their work. If work needs to be reorganised or functions transferred in the interests of integration, then let us do that. But let us hear no more about co-ordination as if it were something separate from, or a burden on our work."
Mr Flood, who will be in charge of implementing the project, said it would initially target the four areas studied and would be for a two-year period. Four project monitors would be appointed to oversee it. After the initial period, it could be extended to the 40 or so urban areas with similar levels of extreme disadvantage.
He said there would be a concentrated drive by local authorities to improve the environment - cleaning up streets, planting trees, fixing public lighting - in the areas. The health boards would make child care and family services more accessible and user-friendly. The Department of Education would take action on issues such as truancy and pupil-teacher ratios.