The Government hopes to hold a children's rights referendum later this year to bolster the rights of children.
Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald has also has promised not to repeat the mistakes of past administrations, which had failed children.
Ms Fitzgerald said the State had failed children over the past century and turned the lives of many children into childhoods defined by "torture and terror".
"We have been further shamed to see that we cannot even consign those horrors to the past. In this century, in this decade, children have slipped through the cracks of a failed system," she said.
"My Government will not simply receive reports, shake our heads and do nothing as out predecessors did. We will act," she said.
Ms Fitzgerald said she hoped a referendum to bolster children's rights could be held before the end of the year. She also confirmed plans to remove child welfare and protection services from the HSE to a new executive agency were already in train.
She said the new child protection body would be dedicated to stripping away the procrastination, deception and evasion that allowed abusers go unpunished.
Ms Fitzgerald said the country had been shamed by the neglect and violence meted out to children over the decades as she launched a consultation on a five-year national children’s strategy.
“A body dedicated to child protection, a body dedicated to the safety of our children and a body dedicated to stripping away the procrastination, the deception and evasion that has allowed abusers go unpunished,” Ms Fitzgerald said.
Ms Fitzgerald was launching the consultation process with children at Scoil Chaitríona on Lower Baggott Street in Dublin for the National Children’s Strategy 2012 to 2017.
Some 1.4 million children in 4,500 schools across the country will detail what they think is the best thing about being a child in Ireland and what changes they would make if they had the chance.
The Minister said the Government must look at the needs of the youngest school-goers to ensure they have the education needed to be the leaders of the future. “The quality of what we do and the quality of the education that we provide to our under-fours will drive the PhDs and the economy in the future and that’s what is really important,” she said.
Pupils in all schools will be asked to fill out the survey next week.
Additional reporting: PA