Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I express my admiration for the work of the wonderful organisation that is the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in assisting vulnerable persons the length and breadth of the country. My Department works very closely with it in addressing many issues that affect vulnerable persons, including food poverty.

The Deputy may not be aware that my Department administers the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived, FEAD, which has been rolled out to all EU countries and provides food and basic consumer products for people most at risk. My Department’s FEAD budget for this year is €8 million, of which €4.5 million has been allocated to ongoing food distribution, with the remainder allocated to the distribution of material assistance in the areas of homelessness, school kits for children who need them and new migrants who may have little more than the clothes on their backs when they arrive.

In 2017, though a network of charitable partnership organisations, the Department distributed almost 1,000 tonnes of food to over 80,000 people in communities throughout the country, either in the form of food parcels or as meals prepared by charitable organisations. In 2017 FEAD assisted 26 Society of St. Vincent de Paul conferences or regions through the provision of food from the three FoodCloud Hubs depots in Tallaght, Cork and Galway. I had the privilege recently of visiting the FoodCloud Hubs. It is an initiative which was started by two wonderful women and which is going a bomb. I wish them well with it. The total value of food collected and distributed by the FoodCloud Hubs was in excess of €650,000, on top of the €8 million we spend, and consisted of 205 tonnes across 23 food product ranges that are available through the FEAD programme.

In addition, the school meals programme provides funding to provide a breakfast for all children and lunch for up to 90% of children attending DEIS schools for the entire school year from September to June. For the first time in many years, breakfasts are also available to some schools outside DEIS allocations. Funding towards the cost of poviding school meals is being provided for over 1,580 schools and other organisations, supporting over 248,000 children, at a cost of some €54 million in 2018.

It is fair to say we are very well aware that people are in situations where they are being deprived of basic food standards. We have taken this issue seriously and significantly resourced measures to ensure we will address their needs.

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