The Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone says every family will benefit from plans to lower the cost of childcare.

However, Dr Zappone has hinted that not every family will benefit from a package of lower costs to be announced in the Budget.

Fine Gael ministers are under fire from their own party’s TDs over fears that middle-income households may be left out of any plans.

Asked today about whether that was still the case, Ms Zappone said all families would benefit eventually.

She said: “We’d be very clear, and I do think the Taoiseach understands this, that ultimately what we are putting in place in terms of a new system, a new programme, a new infrastructure that approach and ambition in every child in the context of every family will benefit to some degree.”