The Minister for Justice yesterday declined to discuss the package of childcare measures which was expected in the Budget.
Details are expected to include both tax cuts and tax credits for working parents. Mr O'Donoghue was being questioned at the announcement of a £40 million childcare package.
He said it would be quite "wrong and unfair" to hint at what measures might or might not be contained in the Budget. "I am not going to pre-empt it and I don't have a crystal ball."
Mr O'Donoghue said yesterday's package, agreed with the social partners last July, would "go further by addressing certain gaps identified in existing schemes and extending support to new areas of the childcare sector." The package would bring Government funding on childcare to £290 million during the life of the National Development Plan.
He said the additional childcare places gave parents, in particular women, a greater role in deciding whether they wished to work outside the home.
He stressed that the Government was not making it compulsory for anybody to go out to work. It wanted to give women the choice.
In the short term, he said, it was important that he created as many childcare places as possible. The amount of money now committed was a testament that they were on course towards providing "quality childcare for the children of this country".
The Labour Party spokeswoman on Equality and Law Reform, Ms Jan O'Sullivan, said however that the package failed to address the problem of afford ability of childcare services for parents.
"At the end of the day, the amount of money being made available to each of the sectors will not result in any real enhancement of supply."