Ireland has a history of failing to protect its children. Generations of Irish people have turned a blind eye to the plight of our most vulnerable citizens and we collectively look back in shame at their suffering – there are the thousands of sexual abuse scandals, the century long abuse of children in the Magdalene Laundries, the hundreds of infants discarded in a septic tank in the Tuam Orphanage, and this list goes on and on.

In disgust, each generation vows never to fail our children again. Yet 1 in 7 children in Ireland is in need of Barnardos’ care today. We have more homeless children than ever before and the number of children experiencing poverty has doubled in the last 10 years. We too are creating a future that will look back in shame at our inaction. It’s time to help Ireland’s children before another generation is lost.