Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I made the Department aware of a typographical error in the question, which was intended to specifically refer to food poverty, an issue on which I propose to focus for a moment. Food poverty has been defined by safefood Ireland as not being able to afford a meat or vegetarian equivalent meal every other day, being unable to afford a weekly roast dinner or vegetarian equivalent at least once a week or missing a meal in the previous fortnight owing to money reasons. According to the most recent figures available to safefood, one in ten people was experiencing food poverty in 2010. This is a stark statistic in a so-called wealthy country.

The Labour Party, of which the Minister is a member, published a policy document on food poverty in 2009-10 in which it estimated that one in five people was experiencing food poverty. All of us are aware that the position has deteriorated markedly since 2010, as shown by the quadrupling of the number of calls made to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has the findings of studies carried out by the Irish League of Credit Unions and others which showed that almost 50% of the population must borrow money to pay basic bills. I expect the figure of one in ten will have increased significantly. Is the Government concerned about food poverty and does it have any specific proposals to address this aspect of poverty?

See this speech in context