Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The actual food bank movement in Ireland is a partnership between a range of companies.

10 o’clock

The Deputy probably would not approve of that anyway.

A range of companies have surplus top quality food or goods and the different charitable and community organisations are used as a mechanism to redistribute that to people who want that. That is instead of having it put into landfill. That is a perfectly sensible use of social resources in this country. It is a combination of people involved with charity and community organisations, businesses and the Department of Social Protection and other public organisations. It means we can utilise food that would otherwise go to waste. It is not a measure of additional poverty at all in Ireland; it is a sensible use of food and other materials that would otherwise just be dumped. What is the problem?

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