The Minister for Justice is to announce details today of departmental committees dealing with childcare.

Mr O'Donoghue said responsibility for co-ordinating childcare services had been assigned to his Department and he intended to set up an inter-departmental committee, a national co-ordinating childcare committee and county childcare committees.

He said £46.4 million in annual funding was being provided for childcare in the Budget, leaving his Department with a budget of more than £250 million, including provision from the National Development Plan over the next seven years.

"This is a significant Budget, which will facilitate action to support objectives such as providing diverse childcare which meets the needs of the child, increasing the number of trained personnel working in childcare and improving the co-ordination and delivery of childcare."

During the resumed Budget debate, the Minister said one of the driving forces of the remarkable performance of the Irish economy over recent years had been the increase in the number of women participating in the workforce.

"Historically, women have been the primary childcarers, principally by working full-time in the home. The increase in the number of women opting to combine work and family life has meant that this historical situation no longer applies. There is a growing demand for childcare in the country and this situation has been exacerbated by a reduction in the number of childcare places available."

Mr O'Donoghue said his Department would shortly be expanding the equal opportunities childcare programme to include a number of strands, taking in capital infrastructure and support for staffing costs for community-based childcare facilities in disadvantaged areas, developmental support for the national voluntary childcare organisations, expanding and improving the provision of childcare training and support for innovative projects in the childcare area.

The Fine Gael spokesman on social welfare, Mr Jim O'Keeffe, said the Budget had laid the foundations for a two-tier society and widened the gap between rich and poor. "It is clear that the Budget is anti-family. It breaks the spirit and, perhaps, the letter of Article 41 of the Constitution. For example, a couple on £45,000 a year with four children, where the wife works at home, will pay £34 per week more in tax from next April than a couple who both work outside the home, have no children and earn the same income."

Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain (SF, Cavan-Monaghan) said the Budget was the most divisive in years. "The wealthy have been rewarded again; the higher paid have benefited disproportionately from the tax changes; the lower paid and those dependent on social welfare have been left with the crumbs from the table. "They might be bigger crumbs, but they are still crumbs. The disadvantaged are not welcome at Minister McCreevy's millennium banquet for the better-off. To use a term close to Minister McCreevy's heart - they are not at the races."

The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern, said the Budget provided for radical tax reform, addressed skill shortages, improved living standards for all and invested in social services.