Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is a really important topic. The Minister of State has given the impression that he will certainly work well on this and make an all-out effort to try and eliminate poverty, particularly among children. I saw figures recently which indicated that there are more than 200,000 children in poverty, much of which is food poverty. The worrying and frightening thing is that if one checks the figures, one can see that poverty is actually rising. There are up to 50,000 extra children in poverty now compared with nine or ten years ago. That should not be happening.

I will not repeat much of what has been said, but I will make a very strong point about the importance of the school meals service. Unfortunately, there are households in which children do not get proper meals. I am not being judgmental of anybody but at least we know schools are providing meals. Even if the school meals service is not there, schools and teachers are very good. I have been involved with schools and know for a fact they will make an awful lot of effort if they feel a child is neglected, is not bringing lunch to school or has not had a proper breakfast. Schools and teachers will pull out all the stops to look after such children.

It is very important that this programme was extended. If children are coming to school and getting meals, at least we know that they are not being totally neglected. I certainly worry that many more children will be neglected and in food poverty when this lockdown is over.

We all have to work to get rid of child poverty. It should not be happening in our country. One of the main measures to achieve this is the programme for giving meals to children in schools. That is extremely important. It is shocking to listen to the contributions, including that of the Chair, about the amount of food that is being dumped. We all say from time to time that no one should go hungry. There are lots of schemes in place but it would be great if we could do something about all that food that is being dumped. I am sure it could be used to extend the school meals service.