Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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251. To ask the Minister for Health in the context of Healthy Ireland, if he and or the HSE provide funding and/or assistance for the provision of grow your own/allotment spaces, and the way in which those funds are accessed by public allotment groups. [50461/23]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Healthy Ireland provides funding to local authorities through the Healthy Ireland Fund to achieve prioritized health outcomes. These funds are allocated via Local Community Development Committees to initiatives and projects that will have impact on these chosen priority outcomes. In addition, funds are provided to the Sláintecare Healthy Communities areas in the form of seed funding to local authorities annually. The Sláintecare Healthy Communities Programme has funded, through it's 2023 seed fund initiative, three Grow it Yourself (GIY) projects in Cork City, Inishowen and Longford. The Grow It Yourself Programme will work in schools in these areas to help develop a more sustainable. response to the issue of food poverty. The provision of grow your own/allotment spaces in itself is a matter for local authorities to reserve and provide land for this use.

Healthy Ireland also provides funding for the Incredible Edibles programme, run by Agri Aware. This programme provides ‘grow packs’ to primary and secondary schools that register for the programme, and these contain seeds that children can plant in schools and enables them to grow their own fruit and vegetables and learn about health and nutrition