Ireland's largest children's charity has called for the rights of children living in poverty to be top of the political agenda.
The call from Barnardo's comes as part of the agency's End Child Poverty campaign, which highlights the fact that one in seven children in Ireland live in poverty.
One in seven children in Ireland live in poverty.
Norah Gibbons, director of advocacy at Barnardo's, also called for a Minister for Children to help provide "some political clout to children's issues".
As part of a seven-step plan to eradicate child poverty, Ms Gibbons called for all children of parents who pay the minimum income tax level of 20 per cent to receive a medical card. She said this should broadened over time to include all children and young people up to the age of 18.
Asked why she thought child poverty was not a big an issue as child safety or child abuse, Ms Gibbons told ireland.com: "I don't think people believe it actually exists in this country.
"Nobody believes it's [child poverty] there. They see the absolute poverty of parts of Africa or remember it in the old tenements here. We've eradicated absolute poverty, but, what we have now is consistent poverty where families have to go to
Norah Gibbons, director of advocacy at Barnardos
loan sharks to pay for school books or shoes for their children," she said.
Ms Gibbons called on the Government to act on its promise to eradicate child poverty by 2007.
"The one in seven figure is not our figure. It's the CSO's figure. It's accepted by the Government. It's accepted by everybody. That's just not good enough," she added
Barnardo's chief executive Fergus Finlay said: "What poverty means in reality is that one in seven children in Ireland go to bed without a substantial meal. It means that kids are cold in bed at night because there's no heating in their house, or, if there is, their parents cannot afford to turn it on.
"It means rarely having the chance to wash in warm water," he concluded.
Barnardo's seven-step plan to eliminate child poverty, includes the targets of improving educational outcomes for all children, improving housing standards for children at risk, and making work pay enough so families escape poverty traps.