Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Yes. The Cathaoirleach and Deputy Ó Cuív have been around the houses so I will not try to retread the path or touch on all of the different issues. I will focus on three specific issues. The first issue is the hot school meals. I tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, in November of last year and we were looking at a figure of €2.90 per hot meal, and 60 cent was the figure for breakfasts. I expressed concern at the time that figure would struggle to keep pace in terms of the costs of food inflation. I have a question as to whether we are reassessing those levels of payments. Are the procurement considerations for getting those hot school meals to children just monetary or are we trying to have wider procurement considerations, particularly around things such as green procurement? I know the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, has looked at matters around the procurement of organics, for example, by the State. Given the spend we are putting in, and there is considerable new spend going into the area of hot school meals, are we maximising in terms of value for the State but also those co-benefits that can be unlocked such as supporting an organic sector? Specifically, and most importantly, are we providing for the nutritional needs of the children? Regarding breakfast,in particular, I am not sure how we can feed people on a nutritionally sound basis for 60 cent, and €2.90 does seem low for a hot school meal.

On paternity benefit, I saw that the Department's metric or bar for success was getting a 65% take-up on that. I hear anecdotally that of a lot of people are not availing of the paternity benefit which is a pity so do we want to raise the bar in that sense? We are achieving that 65% take-up so do we want to go above and beyond that?

I see the Department provided equality budgeting and green budgeting. I wanted to ask about sustainable development goals. Mr. Egan was looking for suggestions for future reporting. This Department is the lead Department on four of the targets related to the sustainable development goals, and a stakeholder Department for an additional sub-target. I wonder whether this is something Mr. Egan is considering in terms of reporting on the Department's budgetary performance and whether that is something we could look into incorporating in the future. Those are the three specific issues, Chair.