Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming here and giving of his time, particularly at this hour. Some very interesting topics have been raised. In the past I have worked with the FoodCloud and meals-on-wheels. Both entities go hand in hand. I have seen firsthand the amazing resources they supply to the community sector that create magic meals for people, which is phenomenal. We have a great example of this in Newmarket-on-Fergus, of which members may have heard, but even they cannot keep up with the volume of stuff offered by FoodCloud. Therefore, greater support must be given to companies like FoodCloud to engage with family resource centres and other areas. Some secondary schools have fitted kitchens that are perfect for cooking food. I believe that there are a couple of links missing between food waste and what can be done so we should tackle these. As we all know, we have a country full of volunteers. If a community needed hot meals and we gave a shout-out in any community in Ireland one would quickly get people running in the door to help. Perhaps greater links could be made between food waste and companies like FoodCloud.

I have an interest in food poverty. According to research conducted by mywaste.ieand also research done by the Green Party in green schools even children from a lower socio-economic background threw away food. So it is not as simple as believing that only well-off people waste food and poorer people do not waste food. There is an issue with the ridiculous amount of food that can be bought cheaply; it is wasted as it is impossible to eat it all.

On the point raised by the Chairman, work is being done and being piloted by green schools on a food flag as opposed to a travel, energy or water flag. The aim of the initiative is to teach children to grow food, which many schools are doing anyway, and eat seasonally. It is terrible that we need to teach adults through their children but pester power works best. I will talk to the Minister of State about the pilot scheme after the meeting.

The Minister of State does not have an easy station but he came from the community development sector and it is really helpful to have a Minister of State from that realm. He is not long in his job and he has done very well so far. It would be easy to throw all of the problems at him but there are solutions and we just need to focus on getting them rolled out. Let us get things done and resolve food poverty plus all of the things that we have touched on today. I look forward to working with him.