The Chief Executive of the Child and Family Agency Tusla has acknowledged the Foster Care Allowance needs to be addressed and said it will continue to advocate for a change to it.
Bernard Gloster said it is one of a series of issues and admitted it has "not kept step with time".
The payment consists of €325 per week for a child under 12 and €352 per week for older children.
Today, Mr Gloster said the minister is very supportive and committed to looking at it.
"I don't see the allowance increase issue as having gone off the table. I think it will just take a little more time for us to get there. Perhaps in the next budgetary cycle."
Speaking on RTÉ's This Week, he said they recently published a very significant improvement plan with 29 recommendations and foster carers have "roundly" welcomed it.
He said this publication followed consultation with several hundred foster carers.
Mr Gloster accepted that the support from Tusla to foster carers for children's health, transport and other essential needs are "not consistent" and said that is "unfortunately" because of "different historical practices" in different parts of the country.
He said last year more than €3m was allocated to foster parents for the provision of special assistance to hundreds of foster children.
He said it is not enough and not consistent and that it is one of 29 recommendations that will be "corrected" next year.
He said it will involve very practical interventions.
Mr Gloster said there is a need to recruit around 250 foster carers annually to ensure most children in State care are with foster families.
"Given the separated children seeking international protection, the standard child protection children in care requirements, if we are to maintain the very high standards of staying above 90% of children in State care being with foster families, we would need to be recruiting in the order of 250 foster families a year."
Mr Gloster also said there will be a foster care peer support recruited in each region to help new foster carers.
He pointed out that foster carers recruited by private companies are not paid more than those recruited directly by Tusla, but acknowledged the support provided is probably more intensive because they are smaller with smaller numbers.
He added that increasing those supports are on Tusla's agenda.
Separately, Mr Gloster said that just under 4,000 applicants have sought information about their birth using the new tracing system.
Earlier this month, the Adoption Authority of Ireland launched a new online system (birthinfo.ie) for people seeking information about their birth, early life, medical information and for those who wish to trace their origins.
The statutory tracing service enables those who wish to make contact with birth relatives to register their information.
Mr Gloster said they expected that figure in the first two weeks and it is likely to "level off" over the coming weeks.
"This is very seminal legislation..... I think it recognises the fact that the legislative framework that was there before was very weak."
He said it is a very significant development while he acknowledged it is a complex journey for people.
"The records are very historical."
He also admitted Tusla "not unlike other State agencies" has been very paternalistic in its approach in the past.
"That is the history of social services in Ireland," he said.
