Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Chairpersons are awful. They never allow me to break the rules.

The main reason I wanted to raise this is because in my area we had new schools added to the DEIS list. That was very welcome because, until lately, on one side of the Long Mile Road was the Assumption school in Walkinstown, one section of which did not have DEIS status, and across the road was Drimnagh Castle, where boys go to school, and which had DEIS status. Kids from one family, street or area were treated differently even though their socioeconomic status was the same. This has been a huge anomaly that I believe the Department has been trying to address. We need an updated report on that because we are getting mixed messages from some parts of the country as to whether it is working or not.

My main point is on the question of hot meals. Last year it seems it was announced that hot meals would be extended to over 300 DEIS schools and a total of €94 million or whatever would be spent on them. The Minister of State can go through the figures. I am sure he is prepared for them. When many of the schools went to access the hot meals system, they were told it was not there. It seems the budget fell well short of what it should have been. As one of the principals said, somebody forgot to mention it in the budget. I think that has been sorted out since but I would like a comprehensive answer on whether or not it has been sorted out.

Will the Minister of State comment on the system of reporting and accounting that schools must engage in to the Department of Social Protection and, potentially, the Department of Education? I understand from some schools this is quite cumbersome and difficult for them, particularly when they are not resourced with staff to deal with that. We all know from the series of disputes and day strikes school secretaries had that they are overburdened, underpaid and undervalued. To ask them to take on that extra work, particularly if it is a cumbersome and difficult accounting system, would not be fair. Schools should be resourced to have somebody to deal with meals, accounting for them and accounting to the Department.

My other question is something that is not out of the hands of the Department and we should be keeping an eye on it. I would like to know what the Minister of State will do to address it. It concerns food inflation, which is above all other types of inflation, apart from energy. Food inflation is 9% or 10%. I think in some quarters of last year it went above that to 11% and 12%. That has put a huge burden on households but clearly is also a factor in the provision of hot school meals. It is a paltry sum that is allowed for each child in each school but some schools have managed to deal with local companies who have given them school meals for the allowed sum. I am not sticking up for the companies but for the provision of hot food for the children. We need to look at that rate because of food inflation.

As I always argue, workers, pensioners and people on social protection need a pay rise that matches inflation. Equally, we need an increase in the allowance for hot school meals that matches inflation, which is still running at 9% to 10% in the case of food inflation. That is not to say companies are not making profit out of it but there needs to be a matching of the funding. I know at least one major company in Dublin that is struggling to continue to provide hot meals at the current rate.

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