The Taoiseach Brian Cowen said it was “nothing short of scandalous” that there are over 860 million hungry people in the world today.
Mr Cowen was speaking at a high-level UN summit in New York today called by UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon to reaffirm commitments to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
"We do not need to make further pledges if we just deliver on what we have already promised," he told the assembled world leaders.
"The commitments and the know-how are already there. It is the political will and action that will make the difference in the fight against hunger," he added.
This year marks the 2008 half-way point between when the MDGs were set down in 2000 and the deadline for achieving them in 2015.
Mr Cowen re-affirmed Ireland's commitment to the MDGs and to playing its full part in the effort being undertaken by the world community to eradicate poverty and hunger.
Before the summit, Mr Cowen presented the Government's Hunger Task Force report to Mr Ban. He was accompanied by some members of the taskforce including Minister for Agriculture Joe Walsh, economist Jeffrey Sachs and Bono
The taskforce, which was called for in the 2006 White Paper on Irish Aid, drew together 15 Irish and international experts to recommend ways in which the State's overseas development strategy could be strengthened and refocused to address food insecurity, particularly in Africa.
The report focuses on three key areas of action – increasing agricultural production in Africa; targeting maternal and infant under-nutrition; and changes in governance and leadership priorities.
Mr Cowen said the Government would reflect on its findings to determine how best to move forward.
"It is my sincere hope that this report will encourage and inspire other governments and multilateral organisations – in both developing and developed countries – and civil society organisations to tackle hunger with a renewed commitment, and to ratchet it up to the top of our global priorities, where it belongs."
He added that hunger was the single greatest challenge facing the world but that it was not an insurmountable challenge.
"One hundred and sixty years ago, Ireland experienced first hand the trauma and devastation of famine – losing more than one quarter of our population, some 2 million people, to death and emigration – and that scar has never been fully erased."
"Hunger is not an insurmountable challenge, but it is dependent – and this for me is one of the key messages of the report – on the will to battle it head-on, to follow commitment with resources, to maximise the effectiveness of resources by scaling-up initiatives that have been proven to work, to support innovation, and to work together at all levels, international, national and local," he said.