Childcare for low-income families ‘priority’, says Katherine Zappone

Subsidised childcare for low-income families must be prioritised in the budget to help the more than 136,000 children living in poverty, said Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone.

The Independent minister emphasised that she wants to extend benefits to the so-called ‘squeezed middle’, but this is dependent on resources allocated to her in the budget and beyond.

Fine Gael ministers and backbenchers fear that State-funded childcare supports only going to lower income families in the budget could anger other families on higher incomes.