Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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16. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will report on an announcement by an organisation (details supplied) that it is receiving a high number of calls regarding food poverty among families; her plans to address the matter; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18667/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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At the outset, I would like to express my admiration for the work of the St Vincent de Paul in assisting vulnerable people in our society. My department works very closely with Vincent de Paul in addressing many issues in relation to vulnerable people, including food poverty. The Department administers the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD), which provides food and basic consumer products to people most at risk. My Department’s FEAD budget for 2018 is €8m, of which €4.5m will be allocated to ongoing food distribution with the remainder allocation to the distribution of material assistance in the areas of homelessness, school kits and new migrants. In 2017, though a network of charitable partnership organisations, the Department distributed almost 1,000 tonnes of food to over 80,000 people in communities throughout the country, either in the form of food parcels or as meals prepared by charitable organisation. In 2017, FEAD assisted 26 St Vincent de Paul conferences or regions through the provision of food from the three FoodCloud Hubs depots in Tallaght, Cork and Galway. The total value of food collected and distributed by these organisations was in excess of €650k consisting of 205 tonnes across 23 food product ranges available through the FEAD Programme.

In addition, the School Meals programme provides funding for a breakfast for all children and lunch for up to 90% of children in DEIS schools for the entire school year from September to June. For the first time in many years, breakfasts are also now available to some schools outside DEIS. Funding towards school meals is being provided in over 1,580 schools and other organisations, supporting over 248,000 children at a cost of some €54 million in 2018.

The primary role of the social welfare income supports provided through my Department is to sustain an adequate standard of living and to prevent poverty, including food poverty. The Irish social welfare system is, generally, relatively successful in this role. In 2016, the most recent year for which the relevant data are available, social transfers (excluding pensions) reduced the at-risk-of-poverty rate from 33.6 per cent to 16.5 per cent, representing a poverty reduction effect of 51 per cent. Ireland was the best performing EU member state in this regard, and this reflects the Government commitment to protect core weekly welfare rates during the recession.

The CSO publishes two items from the Survey of Income and Living Conditions relating specifically to the consumption of food.

First, in 2016, 2.3% of the population were “unable to afford a meal with meat, chicken or fish every second day”. This was down from 4.2% in 2013, when the effects of the recession were most felt.

The figure of 2.3% for 2016 was the third lowest among the EU Member States in that year, and compares with an average of 8.6% for the EU overall.

Second, 5.6% of the population were “unable to afford a roast once a week”. This is a decrease from the 2013 figure of 8.1%. No EU data are published for this indicator.

Difficulty in meeting food and other regular ongoing needs may result from a family encountering exceptional once-off expenditures. In this regard, under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, my Department may make a single exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income.

The Government has provided over €36 million for exceptional payments in 2018. Any persons who consider that they have an entitlement to an exceptional needs payment should contact my Department’s Community Welfare Service.

The Government’s strategy for addressing poverty and social exclusion is set out in the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2017.

My Department, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, is currently developing a successor plan for the period 2018-2021.