Child poverty and hot meals
Jennifer Murnane O’Connor raised child poverty, school moves linked to hot meals provision, and the need to stop families relying on food parcels. The Taoiseach said the budget increased supports, extended the hot meals programme, and raised the fuel allowance.
As Christmas approaches and we think of children at this magical time, I wish to ask the Taoiseach about child poverty. I know families in my area with children who have been moved from one school to another where the hot meals programme is in place. I feel I am addressing this issue constantly. I call for all schools to have a hot meals programme. I see people come into my clinics looking for food parcels. I ask the Taoiseach that we work on this. We cannot have children or families looking for these food parcels. We want to work with them and we have to make sure this does not happen. Where are we on the EU child guarantee?
I welcome the €100 to all households towards their electricity costs. It is a start. I know there are a lot more measures to come, but at least we are making that change. Again, I thank the Taoiseach.
Comment on this
I thank the Deputy for raising a key issue at this time of year and throughout the year generally. We in the Government prioritise poverty across all key social policy areas. The budget reflected that in the form of increased supports for those on low incomes, those in poverty and those at risk of poverty, including improved access to services. The hot meals programme was extended and expanded. If we can expand it further, we will, targeting it at families, children and schools that require it. There was an increase of €10 per week to the working family payment income threshold for all family sizes. There were increases in the rate of increase for a qualified child to €40 per week for children under 12 and €48 per week for children 12 years and older. There was an increase of €5 per week to the maximum rate for all working-age payments in the social protection measures in the budget, including carer's allowance, disability allowance and the one-parent family payment, with proportional increases for reduced rates and qualified adult rates. There was an increase of €10 to the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance and the increase in the fuel allowance from €28 to €33 per week.
