The Government should commit itself to eliminating the poverty which one in four children are experiencing, a leading children's charity has said.
Mr Owen Keenan, chief executive of Barnardos, said Ireland's rate of child poverty is one of the worst in Europe, next to the United Kingdom.
Mr Keenan made his call yesterday following the start of a three-week national and local radio advertising campaign highlighting child poverty.
The advertisements include interviews recorded during workshops with children and families in poverty, defined as those living on 50 per cent or less of the average income. The interviewees talk about their difficulties in accessing education and other social pressures related to their financial constraints.
One child comments: "You do feel bad, like, asking for money [from your parents] because if you ask and they don't have it, like, they feel bad too."
The advertisements are part of a two-year "open your eyes to child poverty" initiative aimed at influencing policy and public opinion. It was launched last year by eight groups including Barnardos.
Mr Keenan said the Government should commit itself either to eliminating child poverty by 2010, or reducing it to a certain level by that time, with a further timetable for its elimination.
The current strong economic climate gave the Government more policy options, but Mr Keenan said he was "not reassured by the thrust of Government policy in recent budgets".
A report from UNICEF Ireland yesterday showed the proportion of children living below the poverty line in the Republic was more than twice that in the Netherlands and France and more than six times that in some Scandinavian countries.
An estimated 16.8 per cent of Irish children live below the national poverty line, according to the report, entitled "A League Table of Child Poverty in Rich Nations".
Of 23 countries surveyed, Ireland ranked sixth worst, with Turkey at 19.7 per cent, Britain (19.8 per cent), Italy (20.5 per cent), the United States (22.4 per cent) and Mexico (26.2 per cent).