There is no need for the Government to change the law to ban the slapping of children, Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald (pictured) has said.

She was responding to calls from a children’s charity to make smacking illegal.

The Children’s Rights Alliance called on the Government to implement a complete ban on slapping children, claiming that such a move was needed if the Government was going to live up to its commitments under international law.

However Ms Fitzgerald said a ban was not necessary because there has been a sea-change in how parents discipline their children, The Irish Independent reports.

The CRA has said it is unacceptable that physical punishment of children by parents, legal caregivers, childminders and foster parents is currently permitted in certain circumstances under Irish law.

The group said the Government has until the end of this month to respond to a formal complaint against Ireland by the Association for the Protection of All Children.

It follows recommendations by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child that slapping be banned in Ireland.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, CRA Chief Executive Tanya Ward said 22 countries across Europe have banned physical violence against children.

“You find it has a very negative effect on parent-child relationships. It can make a child very defiant,” she said.

“It can mean the parent has to use a more extreme form of discipline and it does send a message to children that if you are stressed, that the aggressive forms of behaviour are acceptable. You find that it does contribute to things like domestic violence.”

Currently, the law allows parents, legal caregivers, childminders and foster parents to punish children physically under the common law defence of “reasonable chastisement”.

However, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs said corporal punishment is prohibited in a number of settings under Irish law and it said that any proposal to prohibit the defence of “reasonable chastisement” requires careful consideration.

The Department said there is a balance to be found between supporting parents in effective parenting, and the use of criminal law to impose criminal sanctions on parents who do not adhere to best practice in parenting.

A spokeswoman for Ms Fitzgerald said the ‘Growing Up In Ireland’ study had shown that corporal punishment at home was now “relatively rare” with just 11pc of mothers smacking their children.

A government-commissioned survey found that 42pc of people believed it should be made illegal. But 34pc said slapping should be allowed and another 24pc said it should depend on the age of the child.