A total of 66,000 children are still living in consistent poverty despite recent progress in tackling deprivation and poverty, the children's charity Barnardos said yesterday.
Official figures show almost a fifth of children leave school before completing their Leaving Cert and 1,000 children fail to make the transition from primary to secondary school.
The charity quoted the figures at the launch of its 12-year strategy yesterday aimed at fulfilling the promise of the 1916 Proclamation to "cherish all the children of the nation equally".
Although the group said good progress had been made over the last 10 years, it said 6 per cent of children still experienced deprivation and poverty.
The charity plans to spend €100 million over the next five years helping to meet these aims through tackling child poverty, child protection, educational disadvantage and alcohol abuse.
The chief executive of Barnardos, Mr Owen Keenan, said the group ultimately wanted to make Ireland the "best place in the world" to be a child, with the support of Government and other organisations.
"The challenge is to intervene and break perpetuating cycles - we will not accept that the children of vulnerable parents are automatically consigned to a life of deprivation," Mr Keenan said.
New market research commissioned by Barnardos this year shows that while 100 per cent of those surveyed supported the vision of cherishing children of the State equally, over 94 per cent did not think this was happening.
The long-term plan, in a document called Valuing Childhood - Cherishing Children, will be targeted at children up to 15 years of age, and will assist vulnerable children's educational, emotional and social development needs.
This will include three targeted programmes for:
0- to 5-year-olds, concentrating on prevention, early intervention and support at pre-school level;
5- to 10-year-olds, focusing on improved learning, helping children stay in and progress through school; and
10- to 15-year-olds, helping vulnerable children make a successful transition to young adulthood.
Mr Keenan said the vision of creating an Ireland where all children were cherished equally meant more needed to be done to protect childhood and value children of different abilities, backgrounds and intellectual capacities.
The group plans to spend €100 million over the next five years and that funding will primarily come from the State and philanthropic foundations. The charity has appealed for continued support from businesses and the public.
Mr Keenan also announced that he is due to stand down as the charity's chief executive at the end of June. He will remain on the board of the group.
The Minister of State with responsibility for children, Mr Brian Lenihan, said Barnardos' aims were laudable and he shared the group's social aspirations.
Fine Gael's spokesman on social and family affairs, Mr David Stanton TD, welcomed the strategy, but criticised Government policies which, he said, included broken promises on child benefit and failure to extend the medical card to children of families on low incomes.
The Ombudsman for Children, Ms Emily Logan, said the group's ambitious and long-term goals would help ensure there was a focused approach in working for the greater good of children.
