Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

It is clear I am staying with section 8. We must encourage the maintenance of our birth rate and I would rather see families supported in a different way. Another speaker alluded to one of the measures. If we want to avoid high rates of leaving school early and intergenerational fall-out, it would be wonderful to see a school meals programme. It would be very positive as it would ensure nutrition, and there is a positive effect from nutrition, particularly breakfast, on learning. That is well documented. That measure would definitely be targeted at children and our school system is there to support it.

I support the measure on child benefit. If I disagree with anything, it is the elimination of the multiple births grant. I come from a family where there have been a few sets of twins and I have witnessed at first hand the cost involved with such arrivals. It is hard to explain because of the amount of time involved.