The Ombudsman for Children today called for the Constitution to be changed to allow the State to intervene more easily in cases of child abuse and neglect.
Ms Emily Logan recommended in a report to the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution that children be given express rights as individuals.
Currently, Article 41 of the Constitution recognises the rights of the family but not the individual child. Ms Logan argued that the threshold in Article 42 was set too high for state intervention.
Ms Logan stressed that she was not in favour of undermining parental rights.
But she said: "We have hundreds of children living in very vulnerable situations and where parents don't have the capacity to fulfil their duty as parents."
Ms Logan said that hers was the fourth report in the last 12 years recommending an improvement in children's rights and it was time to make a change.
In 1993 the Kilkenny Incest Investigation Committee recommended a change in articles 41 and 42, as did the 1996 Report of the Constitutional Review Group.
Ms Logan said: "My hope is that if we introduce robust legislation we will no longer have to concern ourselves with tribunals and repeat our poor history."
Mr Geoffrey Shannon, an expert on family law who has advised the Ombudsman, said: "Ireland prides itself as a country which is children loving, but has failed to protect children from exploitation, neglect and abuse down through history."
Mr Shannon referred to the case of Victoria Climbie, who died as a result of abuse and neglect in the UK and where early intervention could have saved the eight-year-old's life. He warned that Ireland was in danger of having "another Victoria Climbie" if there were no moves to amend the constitution.
Ireland ratified the United Nations Convention on the rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1992, but it does not form part of domestic law. The Ombudsman is recommending that express rights for children be inserted into the constitution, with reference to the UNCRC.
"At present, children are not recognised as holding rights independent of their family or the state even though international and European human rights legislation and conventions guarantee human rights for everyone," Ms Logan said.
It is hoped that a change in the constitution would protect vulnerable children more effectively against neglect and abuse. It would also help children stuck in the "legal limbo" of foster care, who cannot be adopted under current laws, but who cannot return to their family.