Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

For more than a year, the Meath food bank was operating out of my office in Trim because it was without any other location from which to operate. It was shockingly sad to see young children and their parents queuing daily outside the Aontú office in Trim for food. The fact that food banks even exist in Ireland in today's world is incredible. Many of them sprung up during the previous economic crash. They did not go away and have been functioning ever since. In many cases, they will say that they are busier than ever.

We must deal with the cost of living crisis for everyone, but we need to prioritise certain sections of society, one of which must surely be children living in poverty. There are a significant number of children living in poverty. Judging from the numbers that the Minister just read out, it is clear that the money going into the programme is increasing. While that is welcome, the number of schools covered by its schemes has not increased to the same level. It is this level of reach that we need to get to in order to ensure that no child in this country goes to bed hungry anymore.

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