The Government has been accused of dismantling social partnership by the St Vincent de Paul Society, which described the proposed new agreement as "nothing more than a pay deal".
It said the new programme was a "strategic talking shop" which carried no benefits for the poor and disadvantaged.
The society, which was represented in the partnership talks, said the agreement had fudged key issues in housing, social welfare, education and health.
Mr John Monaghan, the SVP's social policy vice-president, claimed the Government had not engaged in meaningful negotiations with the community and voluntary sector.
"The Government has made a fundamental choice not to make resources available for the necessary social inclusion measures. It has not addressed the reality of poverty," he said.
The society would have serious difficulty signing up to the agreement as it currently stood, but would consult its members before making a decision early next month.
A group of trade unionists, meanwhile, is to launch a campaign against the proposed agreement tomorrow. The group, which includes activists from SIPTU, the National Bus and Rail Union and the Teachers' Union of Ireland, said the agreement involved pay cuts in real terms.
The chairman of the group, Mr Owen McCormack, also claimed the binding arbitration aspects of the programme would be open to abuse by employers.
Thousands of workers, he said, could be left waiting for the outcome of a binding arbitration process after employers had pleaded inability to pay the terms of the deal.
Mr McCormack is a member of the NBRU, which is not a member of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and therefore not party to the agreement.
He said, however, that the deal affected all workers.
Referring to the commitment in the programme to provide up to 10,000 affordable houses, Mr McCormack said workers should not have to accept an effective pay cut in exchange for something the Government should be providing anyway.
However, support for the agreement was expressed yesterday by the UCATT trade union, which represents 12,000 workers, mainly in the construction sector. Its executive decided to recommend the deal to its members.
The Irish Nurses' Organisation has decided to ballot its members without issuing a recommendation.
Branch representatives of IMPACT, the State's largest public sector union, will decide their position at a meeting in Dublin today.
An anti-inflation strategy remains the only outstanding element of the programme. It may be finalised today.
