Children's rights and welfare should be put at the heart of national policy in a bid to combat poverty, a leading charity claimed today.
With one-in-seven children in the country living in consistently poor households, Barnardo's has called for a new approach to show the scale of the problem while coming up with solutions.
Chief executive Fergus Finlay said it was time action was needed to improve the provision of child-dedicated services.
"We have come to the view as an organisation that a national mindset has to be changed, that children have to be put much more at the centre of national policy than they are at the moment," Mr Finlay said.
"We are going to seek to try and make people much more aware about the scale and existence of child poverty and of the potential solutions that are there."
In its annual review for 2004 the charity said 148,000 youngsters were living in poverty-stricken conditions, with no guarantee of hot food or decent clothing in the winter. Barnardo's said there were inadequate provisions for dental services, speech therapy and services for kids with special needs.
"This is the Celtic Tiger, we have had 10 years now of unprecedented economic prosperity and the notion that one-in-seven of our children is living in that kind of poverty is surely unacceptable," Mr Finlay said.
"What it boils down to is one in seven of our children living in conditions and with expectations that would not be acceptable to the rest of us at all."
Barnardo's, which deals with 12,000 youngsters at 35 centres around the country, said it was unacceptable to see so many kids living off a family income which was less than 60 per cent of the average.
Labour Party Spokesperson on Social and Family Affairs, Willie Penrose, said: "Ireland spends much less on social protection than most European countries. The EU average is 25 per cent of GDP, with Sweden spending most, 31.3 per cent GDP, and Ireland least, 14.5 per cent GDP or 17.9 per cent GNP.
"When these figures are combined with today’s statistics from Barnardos . . . Ireland ranks amongst the worst countries in Europe in terms of provision of services for children," he added.
Mr Penrose said: "Child dependent allowances and family income supplement should be merged into a new child benefit supplement, and there must be urgent reform of the back to school clothing and footwear allowance."