Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 36: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the financial and other contributions of his Department in ensuring people on low incomes can afford healthy food; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43278/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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My Department through its various social insurance and assistance schemes provides income supports to people to meet their basic living needs, including food, clothing, heat and light.

Supplements are also payable in certain circumstances for specific needs, for example fuel allowances, rent supplements, living alone allowance for older people or the household benefits package for pensioners, eligible disabled people and carers.

Where people on low incomes have particular medical conditions or dietary requirements, diet supplements are available through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme which is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive. It is expected that expenditure on diet supplements will amount to €6 million this year and benefit over 11,000 people.

My Department also provides funding for school meals through two programmes, the urban school meals scheme and the local projects scheme. The urban school meals scheme operates in conjunction with certain local authorities and is co-funded by my Department. The local projects scheme provides funding to secondary, national, pre-schools and community groups in both urban and rural areas who provide school meals.

For families with school-going children, school meals can make a real and important contribution to ensuring that children receive better nutrition. Such services can also contribute to improved school attendance and quality of learning. Expenditure on the schools meals programme for 2006 will be of the order of €13 million and will benefit some 125,000 pupils in approx 1,400 schools in 2006. In Budget 2007, I have provided a further €3m for the school meals scheme.

My Department commissioned the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute to undertake a study into the cost of healthy eating and specialised diets for a single individual in Ireland. This study, which was published in January 2006, brought an up-to-date focus on the varying costs of healthy foods and contained proposals for specialised diets based on the latest dietary and medical views. This study found that, depending on whether a person shopped in a low cost supermarket or convenience store, a healthy eating diet could be purchased for between €40.38 and €59.38 at January 2006 prices. This is equivalent to between 24% and 38% of the minimum weekly social welfare payment of €165.80.

Healthy eating is affected by dietary and nutritional awareness, cultural attitudes and access to good quality grocery shopping, as well as to the adequacy of social welfare income supports. In recent years, budgetary increases in social welfare payment rates have consistently exceeded increases in the cost of living. This key policy is the primary focus of Budget allocations to my Department each year, and it has helped ensure that those depending on social welfare experience real improvement in their ability to meet their basic needs, including provision of adequate food, heating, etc.

In this regard, consumer price index information from the Central Statistics Office indicates that the cost of food and non-alcoholic beverages has increased by 1.7% over the past 12 months. From December 2001 to date, food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by just 3.7% in aggregate while increases in social welfare payment rates increased by between 47% and 56% in the same period. As overall total inflation amounted to less than 18% in that period, there has been a very significant real increase in purchasing power for people on social welfare.

I am satisfied that the policy of providing substantial real increases in primary social insurance and assistance payment rates has been effective in ensuring that those who depend on social welfare income have sufficient income for healthy food.