Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will recall from his time in government, the previous Government abolished the Combat Poverty Agency. The social inclusion division of my Department performs a role similar to that performed by the former agency. I have asked the division, which has great expertise in measuring poverty and examining what constitutes being less well-off, to examine this issue. I am pleased Deputy O'Dea acknowledged that I and my party are highly concerned about poverty.

Food poverty is one element of the poverty experience and has been defined as the inability to have an adequate and nutritious diet for reasons of affordability or accessibility. The emphasis on the issue of nutrition is critical as it raises the need for education on the use of food, diet and so forth. Households experiencing food poverty consume less nutritionally balanced diets and suffer from higher rates of diet related chronic diseases.

Sometimes people associate food poverty with a lack of food or low incomes when in many cases it is caused by the absence of a nutritious diet. While this may be related to income, it may also be because people do not have sufficient skills or knowledge in the area of nutritious food. We have a number of programmes in place for this reason. I am pleased to note that, notwithstanding the tight budgetary position in 2013, my Department spent €35 million last year on school meals, notably on the development of breakfast clubs and hot school meals. I prioritised this budget and increased it this year by €2 million to provide nutritious hot food to children as they start their school day. This is a positive social development in our education system.

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