It has been confirmed that a child beauty pageant will take place in Ireland later this year.

Annette Hill, the owner of US University Royal Beauty Pageant has confirmed that an event will be hosted in Ireland in the coming months.

Hill spoke to Newstalk earlier today and said there has been a huge demand by Irish parents to bring a pageant to the country.

The organiser said that over three hundred Irish parents contacted her to hold a pageant where babies and children compete against each other to win cash prizes.

Although many Irish hotels refused to host the event, an undisclosed venue has been confirmed.

The location of these pageants usually remains secret to ward off sex offenders and others with malicious intents.

The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald said that pageants of this nature promote early sexualisation of children and the commercialisation of childhood.

“It’s not something I’d be encouraging,” she said.

The controversial beauty pageants has been brought to the limelight in recent years on TLC’s Toddlers & Tiaras which follower mothers and children as they compete in beauty pageants stateside.