Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. There is no doubt a huge amount of work is done by the charities, and the Minister of State referred to 563 charities which are delivering different items, which is very worthwhile. However, it is clear there is a huge loss of food from other sources. As I said, Aldi indicated it had to get rid of €10 million worth of surplus food, which is scandalous. There must be some means of pulling together all of these supermarkets, businesses and other producers of food of all types, preparing a register of the food available and distributing it.

I have been out on a soup run and have seen the problems on the ground. I have also seen the problems in my own constituency office and know that due to the economic climate, some people are having cornflakes as their main meal. While this is hard to believe, it is the case that some people are not getting a full meal. There have also been cutbacks to the meals-on-wheels service for senior citizens and some children are going to school malnourished. These are the areas where we need to deliver the food. If this is co-ordinated better, we can deliver more, and there is certainly scope to do this, from the information I have received.

It is clear that the amount of food that is being thrown away in this society is massive. The Minister spoke about a new European initiative. I am not too clear about what that means. Does it mean that more money is coming in? Will it help in terms of funding, co-ordinating and bringing more groups on board to distribute and store food? The storing of food is probably very important. It is important that we can hold that food in case of emergencies and serious breakdown somewhere along the line.

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