I raise the question of poverty. There were 160,000 people who needed support from St. Vincent de Paul last year and 50,000 of those people were in food poverty. Food poverty means the most basic need is not met in this rich country, where politicians, judges and former taoisigh get regular pay rises. There is no doubt the figures will be worse this year.

This is just one charity and there are countless charities, with every one representing a failure of the Government to provide the basic needs of our people. Poverty costs us €4.5 billion per year. The Government argues its hands are tied on gold-plated pensions and top-tier pay rises but are its hands tied when it comes to poverty or children having to go to bed hungry or living on handouts on paper plates on cold streets? Are the Government's hands tied or is its heart closed to this suffering? What is the Government going to do about poverty in this country because charities cannot pick up the pieces forever? I would like a straight answer. Poverty is real and it is pushing hundreds of thousands-----

The Deputy is eating into his colleagues' time.

To be fair to the Deputy, he had to finish his script. The social protection budget is unprecedented in its scale. It is an enormous provision that is necessary to help people in very difficult financial positions right across the board. The budget was particularly strong in measures targeted at those most vulnerable to falling into poverty. The expansion of the schools meals programme is an example, along with increasing child dependant allowances. To be fair to the Ministers for Social Protection and Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputies Humphreys and Michael McGrath, they worked to ensure funding was targeted to prevent those groups most likely to fall into poverty from falling into poverty. That will continue to be our focus.