James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Question 131: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his views on whether access to a healthy diet should be included as an indicator to measure food poverty as part of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy Inclusion process; if so, the action he has taken in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8316/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Access to a healthy diet and tackling food poverty is a clear priority for this Government and the approach being adopted is linked to a wide range of policy initiatives which are reinforced in the Agreed Programme for Government.

Towards 2016 contains targets relating to the development of the Schools Meals Programme, a new Health Promotion Policy and action on children's food poverty and obesity. Building on this, the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016 (NAPinclusion) contains a number of targets aimed at providing access to a healthy and affordable diet. Commitments in relation to food and nutrition include:

a National Nutrition Policy to address children's food poverty and obesity. This will be launched shortly by the Department of Health and Children; and

the initiation, by the Department of Health and Children working in partnership with other stakeholders, of specific community and sectoral initiatives to encourage healthy eating and physical activity among adults, with a particular focus on adults living in areas of disadvantage.

The school meals schemes for children in disadvantaged areas funded by my Department — the urban school meals scheme and the local projects scheme — can make an important contribution to ensuring that children receive better nutrition. It is a criterion of schemes that funding is used for healthy, nutritious food only and schools are encouraged to include fruit with each meal. In 2007, some 185,000 pupils in 1, 800 schools benefited from the scheme at a cost of some €27m. The number of meals being provided on a daily basis through the school meals local projects scheme doubled from 89,915 in the school year 2005/2006 to 179,660 in the school year 2006/2007. In addition, my Department is involved with a Healthy Food for All initiative to develop a code of best practice for school meals.

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. A costing for a healthy eating diet was incorporated in the study entitled the Examination of the Cost of Healthy Eating and Specialised Diets for a Single Individual in Ireland which was undertaken by the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute for my Department to inform policy on diet supplement arrangements. Over 10,000 people received such supplements through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme at a cost of €5.5 million in 2007. The study was updated in November 2007 in the light of changing prices and ongoing research on nutritional issues. One of its key findings is that a balanced healthy eating diet can be purchased for between 18% and 30% of a person's social welfare allowance.

In line with the Government's targets in the NAPinclusion, increases in social welfare payment rates have consistently exceeded increases in the cost of living in recent years. This has helped to 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.

There is no one indicator or measure of poverty that gives a complete picture of the situation regarding deprivation, poverty and social exclusion. The official Government approved consistent poverty measure was developed independently by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). The main objective of this poverty measure is to clearly identify those who are most deprived and vulnerable in society i.e. the proportion of people, from those with less than 60 per cent of median income, who are deprived of goods or services considered essential for a basic standard of living. Deprivation of food is reflected in two out of the eleven indicators used to obtain the measure of consistent poverty measure.

The overall goal in the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion (NAPinclusion) is to reduce the proportion of the population experiencing consistent poverty to between 2 per cent and 4 per cent by 2012, with the aim of eliminating consistent poverty by 2016. The latest results from the EU SILC survey, released November 2007, indicate that the Government is on target to achieve this goal. It showed that the rate of consistent poverty in the population in 2006 was 6.5 per cent, down from 8.2 per cent in 2003. A reduction in food poverty is being achieved as part of the overall reduction in consistent poverty.