Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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There are two schemes and I am trying to figure out why there are two. One is a very small scheme which might be retained to allow the local authorities to contribute. However, it seems odd to have two schemes - the urban school meals scheme and the school meals programme - doing much of the same work. One of them was set up after the 1913 Lock-out and the fact that it still exists speaks volumes. However, we also have a return of soup kitchens, which says something about where we have gone. Although it is not a huge amount, would it be beneficial if the money in the urban school meals scheme was subsumed into the overall pot and local authorities were to continue to contribute, or would they hide their part or spend it somewhere else? The idea would be to increase the amount of money available and hopefully we could make this a recommendation from this meeting.