Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for taking the time to come before the committee today and share their experiences of food and child poverty. I welcome Ms Jonsson, who I know very well. She operates a food bank in the heart of my area in Quarryvale. It has been a beacon of hope to many people. Unfortunately, I have spent a lot of time with her and her organisation over the past couple of years dealing with people who needed to access the food bank in Quarryvale under the auspices of the Quarryvale Family Resource Centre.

It is a highly disadvantaged area. There are many levels of poverty in the area. It was the same when I was growing up in the 1980s. I echo what Ms Jonsson said about the school meals programme. It should be open to everybody. When I was younger, I accessed the school meals programme. Everybody seemed to be poor in the 1980s, and things do not seem to have become better in some parts of the area.

I also echo what was said by another witness about DEIS areas. The DEIS areas within my locality have some access to food, but some schools are not categorised as DEIS despite having some of the highest level of poverty in the area. I will not mention them because I do not want to stigmatise them further. The approach to the DEIS designation needs to be examined.

Can Ms Jonsson elaborate on her comment in her opening statement regarding the number of parents accessing the food bank because they have to find a private operator to provide their children's healthcare? Parents are desperate to find care for their children, such as occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and child psychology, but because the waiting lists in the public health system are so long it is having a detrimental impact on children's development. Can she elaborate on her experience of that?