A report issued this afternoon has highlighted areas where children in Ireland are faring worse than youngsters in other EU countries, as well as areas where Ireland is ahead.
The report, compiled at the Children's Research Centre in Trinity College Dublin, also identifies areas where further research is urgently required.
The report covers topics from family circumstances to education. It shows that Irish children receive on average 12 months less lifetime education than the OECD norm.
One in eight boys leaves school by the time they are 16 and there are 50,000 children in families on housing waiting lists.
The report says more research is needed to find out how many children have an educational disability, and to discover more about the quality of childcare in Ireland.
The research centre found that Irish children's literacy is the fifth best in the developed world and Irish children score very highly in the overall happiness stakes.
