There are now a record number of children in State care, according to figures from the Health Service 
Executive.
There are 6,175 children in either foster or residential care, The Irish Times reports.
In the first six months of the year the number of children in care increased by 385, about three times the number admitted into the system during all of last year.
The vast majority, 5,548, were in foster care, while 465 were in residential care.
Another 162 were in other forms of care placements, according to figures compiled by the Health Service Executive.
Social work groups and children’s charities have suggested that the increase may be the result of greater awareness over abuse and neglect, following high-profile cases such as the Roscommon abuse case.
Ineke Durville of the Irish Association of Social Workers said: “There’s also an atmosphere out there of erring on the side of caution. Since Roscommon, they may be quicker to take children into care.”
The figures show that the Constitution is not as much of a bar on the State intervening in families where children are at risk as is sometimes claimed.
A number of campaigners for a “children’s rights” referendum have suggested that the Constitutional protection for the married family created an insuperable barrier for social workers attempting to place at-risk children in State care.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner last year, solicitor Catherine Ghent said: “The test for intervention in a married family is there must be an immediate and fundamental threat to the capacity of the child to operate as a human person.
“There are exceptional circumstances in exceptional families, where children can be left in a very dangerous situation and the state’s ability to intervene is curtailed by the Constitution.”
Groups such as the Children’s Rights Alliance, a coalition of about 80 children’s groups, have expressed concern at the rising numbers and called for a study to determine why children are coming into care.
HSE officials downplayed the increase and said it is not necessarily very significant.
Gordon Jeyes, national director of children and family services at the executive, said earlier this year that increases in Ireland were part of an international trend.
There has been a long-standing increase in the numbers being admitted into care in Ireland. In 1989 there were a total of 2,756 children in State care. This rose to 4,216 in 1999 and reached 5,790 last year.
While the child population has been growing for much of that time, the proportion of children being admitted into care has also grown sharply, doubling from 26 children per 10,000 in 1989 to 51 per 10,000 by 2007. More recent figures are not available.
Social work files seen by The Irish Times earlier this month show that hundreds of urgent child protection reports are not being assessed or followed up, leaving many young people at high risk of abuse or neglect.
In interviews, social work teams in several parts of the State said they were being forced to ignore potentially serious reports of suspected abuse or neglect because of heavy workloads and under-staffing.
Officials say significant additional resources are being targeted at the area with 60 social workers being recruited.
However, the recruitment of these posts has been put on hold by HSE management in recent weeks because of the scale of the financial challenge facing the organisation.