Children's charity Barnardos has said that one-in-seven children in Ireland is affected by homelessness, poverty or neglect.
Barnardos has launched its 'Lost Childhood' campaign, which seeks to engage individuals, organisations and the Government to ensure children are seen as a political priority.
The charity is urging people to join the campaign to ensure that children are given every chance to reach their full potential.
Barnardos CEO Fergus Finlay said no child should worry about whether they will wake up in the same bed tomorrow as they did today and that for too long children have not been a priority politically.
He said that where a child lives or the amount of money that their parents receive should not determine their access to healthcare or education, but, "over 170,000 childhoods and futures, are being written for them through circumstances beyond their control, and because of poor policy making".
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Finlay said he was shocked that the National Development Plan did not mention the word poverty once.
He said children are mentioned, but only tangentially, and in the context of encouraging parents back to work.
Mr Finlay said that there were no homeless children in Ireland when he began working for the charity 12 years ago and now there are 3,000 homeless children.
He said children are the forgotten scandal in Ireland.
We "have been here so many times before" and yet we are failing another generation of children, he said.
Mr Finlay added that plans to replace school prefabs and youth programmes are unfunded and unplanned.
He said he would have preferred to have seen commitments to establish a dedicated child and family team, made in the report. This would not cost much, he said.
In addition, he said he would ensure every child had books going to school and he would extend the pre-school year.
