The Special Rapporteur on Child Protection has warned an Oireachtas committee of "persisting significant and grave concerns regarding child protection".
Caoilfhionn Gallagher, KC, said that there is "a realisation gap" in the Government's response to child protection.
While the "undoubted respect for, and commitment to, children's rights in principle ... is to be commended and welcomed", she cautioned that "in practice there remain significant difficulties, resulting in children being at risk".
Ms Gallagher was appointed special rapporteur in February.
This evening she is making her first appearance before the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
The Dublin-born international human rights lawyer and barrister is based in London, from where she addressed the committee remotely.
As she was taking up her post, she noted that "the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child was just in the process of publishing" its latest report on Ireland.
Ms Gallagher said that "those concluding observations raised a very wide range of serious concerns spanning diverse issues, and they made clear that detailed extensive cross-sector reform is required to give effect to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child" in Ireland.
The head of the State's child protection agency told the committee that she is "acutely aware" of the "increased risk" of exploitation faced by "vulnerable children and young people".
Kate Duggan, Interim Chief Executive Officer at Tusla, said that the risks are faced both by children in State care and "those in the wider community".
Ms Duggan cited a scoping study, conducted by University College Dublin, and published in June.
'Protecting Against Predators', prepared by the university's Sexual Exploitation Research Programme, found that the State is not doing enough to protect children in care from exploitation.
Working group to consider if 'wider response' warranted
Minister for Children Roderic O'Gorman noted that the study raised "very concerning matters" and "unsettling concerns that young girls in residential centers might be being targeted by predatory and organised groups of men".
He added that he has "met a delegation from the UCD Sexual Exploitation Research Programme, including one of the authors of the report", which he said was "very detailed" and "useful for myself".
Tusla also met with the report's authors.
Both Tusla and the minister established that every instance of exploitation has been forwarded to either Tusla or the gardaí.
Minister O'Gorman also said that he has submitted the UCD report to the Working Group on Institutional Abuse to establish what "wider response" is warranted.
