More than 5,000 school-age children aged 15 years or older are caring for relatives who are unable to look after themselves, official figures show.
Support groups say many of these young people are forced to take on the burden of adult responsibilities such as giving medication, nursing care and emotional care.
Latest census figures for 2006 show that 5,400 people aged between 15 and 19 gave unpaid personal help to a family member or relative each week.
Just over 1,000 of these young carers said they devoted in excess of 15 hours a week to caring, while almost 500 gave 43 hours or more a week to looking after family members.
The real figure may be greater as the census question did not include children below 15. A research project due to be published soon by University College Cork indicates children as young as six may be acting as carers in the home.
The Carers' Association said yesterday the lack of adequate funding from support services in the community meant too many children were acting as full-time or part-time carers.
"We're seeing more and more children in these situations," said Enda Egan, the association's chief executive. "There are a lot of dangers for these young carers, such as risks to their mental health, physical health and their schoolwork."
Unlike in the UK, there is no State funding available to support vulnerable children serving as carers, says the Carers' Association
The British government provides £334 million (€482 million) to hundreds of projects, such as counselling and after-school groups, for young people who look after disabled, mentally ill or drug-abusing parents.
The Government has pledged to fund new research into establishing the real extent of child carers in Ireland. The Carers' Association has called on the Government, in the meantime, to devote at least €5 million to a special fund aimed at young carers.
In total, census figures from the Central Statistics Office show that more than 160,000 people aged 15 years and over provided regular unpaid help for someone with a long-term illness or disability. Two-thirds of all carers were women.
Over half of all carers said their principal economic status was at work. One-quarter of all carers said they provided unpaid help for 43 hours or more each week.
People living in rural areas were more likely to be carers. For example, 5.4 per cent of people living outside towns or cities classified themselves as carers, compared to 4.3 per cent of those living in city areas.
The local authority areas with the highest proportion of carers included Mayo, Roscommon and North Tipperary.
When broken down by age, most carers were in the 45-54 age group (46,000 carers), followed by 35-44 (38,000), 55-64 (27,000) and 65 years or older (18,000).
