Debate contribution: Education (Holiday Meal Payments) Bill: Consideration Stage
Debate contribution by Mr Danny Baker on .
- MLA
- Mr Danny Baker
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 21 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Education (Holiday Meal Payments) Bill: Consideration Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5742976
Read the official Assembly record
Text
You are on the Education Committee with me. You heard the evidence: you know that some children are returning to school four and a half months behind their peers who are not on free school meals; you know that children on free school meals are five times more likely to leave school without five GCSEs. The evidence is there that poverty and educational underachievement are inextricably linked. Children are coming back from their holidays — particularly the summer holidays — malnourished. If they are hungry, they cannot learn. We are able to support children during school. If you want to save money down the line, you have to make this type of early intervention. I have always said that this is only one piece of a wider puzzle. It does not go far enough. We need much more from not just the Education Minister but the DUP Communities Minister, who has not brought forward the anti-poverty strategy. We could sit here all day long and try to blame John O'Dowd, but your Minister has a budget. Where does he want to prioritise it?
183 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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