Debate contribution: Education (Holiday Meal Payments) Bill: Consideration Stage
Debate contribution by Miss Deirdre Hargey on .
- MLA
- Miss Deirdre Hargey
- 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 5743063
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I remember the meeting, and you said that you did not want to take responsibility for the payment. You said that it was nothing to do with you, to which I replied that the Department of Education held all the payment data and that the Department for Communities would continue to work closely with you to deliver it. That is what Communities did when you were Minister and when Peter Weir was Minister. It is a pity now that the Department for Communities, which is under the DUP, and the DUP Education Minister are now refusing children the payment. The DUP is doing what it has always done, which is to attack low-income, working-class families. Keep doing what you normally do.
121 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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