The Children's Rights Alliance says urgent investment in child protection, welfare and family support services is needed in next month's Budget.
The group held an End Child Poverty event in the city today and is calling for the government to provide at least 100 million euro in funding to tackle what it calls a "deepening crisis" in the child protection system.
Around 92 thousand children are living in consistent poverty, with fears that number will grow without extra support and additional resources for the child and family agency Tusla.
Dr. Sharon Lambert from UCC's School of Applied Psychology says investing in children now will have a long-term positive impact:
"When we're talking about tackling poverty, we have to invest in services across all sectors education, justice, health, and housing. From a financial point of view, when you invest in children financially, it saves money in the long term, in terms of the difficulties that people can have when they're adults and the burden it places on health care systems for example".
