Call to tackle child food poverty

The Government has been urged to establish a national programme of emergency food aid to cope with the increasing numbers of children arriving in school hungry.

Independent TD John Halligan told the Dáil this morning that school principals were bringing in food themselves to feed pupils coming to school hungry.

He said the school meals programme operated by the Department of Social Protection was only addressing a fraction of the problem.

But Taoiseach Enda Kenny said €37 million was being spent annually on the programme and some of the food was being dumped untouched.

Mr Halligan highlighted figures that reveal 270,000 children in the country suffer some level of poverty and latest statistics by CSO that a further 35,000 children have fallen into the poverty trap in Ireland. He said one in five school principals reported more children arriving in school hungry and increasingly unable to concentrate.

The Waterford TD, who has repeatedly raised issues of increasing poverty in the State, appealed to the Taoiseach to meet school principals who had been on national radio talking about the problem, to discuss the issue and to deal with the crisis in schools.

But Mr Kenny ruled out meeting school principals. He said it was not a case of meeting school principals but of using resources properly.

The Taoiseach said the €37 million being spent on the school meals programme included an increase of €2 million over last year.

However, he said a lot of good food in the programme was being wasted. He said there was an issue of morality given the waste involved in some elements of the scheme and the amount of food untouched and dumped.

The Taoiseach said the issue would be monitored. Mr Halligan replied that it needed immediate action, not monitoring.

Mr Kenny told him it was a case of being able to have a “flexible scheme” to cater for where this arises and do deal with it in a sensitive manner that did not raise further social barriers for children