Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary has said his department is looking to introduce a secondary child benefit payment.
However, Minister Calleary said the second-tier of child benefit will not be part of next month's budget.
The Minister told RTÉ's This Week programme that while work on the payment is under way, it will not be ready by early October.
"A second-tier of child payment is something that we are looking at within the department. My officials are doing a lot of work on it," he said.
"The proposals around it, though, would involve a complete rejig of existing payments. What I want to make sure is, firstly, that nobody loses out by introducing a new payment."
He contended that measures will "absolutely" be advanced, and gave a commitment that it will be completed in advance of Budget 2027.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin had suggested last week that such a measure would be part of Budget 2026, or something equivalent to it.
Mr Calleary said heat and energy bills coming from bad insulation and food costs are some of the major causes of parents with children living in poverty.
He said the Government has published a "very ambitious" child poverty strategy that involved "every single Government department that has a role in this base".
Mr Calleary said: "It is being published with my department, the Department of Social Protection, but we have a unit now within the Taoiseach's unit.
"Looking at the cross-departmental impact on child poverty and the initiatives we need to take to reduce bills for people ... so they have money to spend on their children and give those children the benefits."
He said the Government must look at the supports in place already, in addition to the universal Child Benefit Payment.
"We have the child support payment which is paid in addition to child benefit to those on the lowest incomes and we are investing €780 million per annum in the child support payment, it assists about 329,000 children," he said.
The cost of a second-tier of child benefit is estimated at €772 million, and it is estimated that it would lift 50,000 children out of poverty.
"What I want to make sure, firstly, is that nobody loses out by introducing a new payment and secondly we would have to look at where you would bring in the tiers, the cut-off and ensure the working families who are currently being supported by the working family payment don't lose out either," he said.
He said that he has the tools available to him and is focused on further increasing the child benefit payment, which he says has a "direct impact".
"I want to make sure that it has the kind of effect that we need it to have," he said and added that those on the lowest income and those that are struggling "get that permanent security".
"Before we bring that in, I have immediate supports available. I have immediate tools available through the child support payment, through the working family payment.
"They are my target for investment in the immediate short-term," he added.
On why the second-tier has not been introduced, Mr Calleary said some people are getting a child support payment every week, with the working family payement and other additional supports also available.
There are around 80,000 households in Ireland which earn more than €200,000 per year, and many of those households receive child benefit.
When asked about those who are receiving the payment but do not need it, Mr Calleary said: "You can't make a general statement like that ... you don't know what the circumstances of any particular household is.
"And we have always had a commitment for universal child payment in respect of our commitment as a State over many years to children," he said.
