Childline received more than 380,000 contacts from children last year.

Opposition calls to increase the digital age of consent have suffered a setback.

Joyce Fegan talks to Childline volunteer Sarah Hughes about the issues affecting troubled children that contact the organisation and how they help children work through their problems

Some of the hundreds of troubled children who called Childline on Christmas Day just wanted to say thanks to the volunteers for being there for them.

Volunteers with Childline, Ireland’s 24-hour listening service for children and young people, answered 1,020 calls from children and young people across the country on Christmas Day.

Childline will receive over 1,200 calls on Christmas Day this year.

The charity behind Childline has said the phone service has received an increasing number of calls from children concerned about homelessness.

Childline answered nearly 400,000 calls for help last year.

On the week of May 22 to 28, the ISPCC’s Get Blown Away for Childline fundraising event will return for a second year.

Childline received more than 1,000 calls for help on Christmas Day, with some children citing domestic violence and alcohol abuse as problems in their home.

Ryanair today made a €100,000 donation to ISPCC Childline, its 2016 chosen Irish charity partner, at a Christmas jumper day held at its Dublin Offices.

Six thousand young people have been in touch with the ISPCC Childline services since the beginning of the Cheerios's Childline breakfast week.

The ISPCC says its Childline service received nearly 1,200 calls, texts and messages from children and young people on Christmas Day.

A new Childline service has been launched for homeless children.

Dozens of youngsters have called a children’s helpline in the UK with fears that they will be victims of terrorist attacks following the Paris massacres last week.

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Eircom has said it cannot say when a major phones problem which has affected hundreds of thousands of people will be fixed.

Eleven calls made by suicidal children to the ISPCC’s Childline service resulted in immediate referrals to the emergency services last year, with the organisation saying it saw an increase in 2014 in the number of contacts from young people mentioning suicide.

Up to 300 Irish children called Childline threatening suicide last year, according to the ISPCC which runs the service.

More than 3,000 children who called Childline last year had serious mental health needs and more than 500 were described as being “in crisis”, it has emerged.

Childline referred 131 calls to gardaí last year, with the helpline’s annual report also showing that it answered almost 60,000 calls about abuse and welfare issues.