Debate contribution: Education (Holiday Meal Payments) Bill: Further Consideration Stage
Debate contribution by Mr Jon Burrows on .
- MLA
- Mr Jon Burrows
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 12 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Education (Holiday Meal Payments) Bill: Further Consideration Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5786430
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I will address the Bill, specifically the amendments. I support the Minister's amendments, and I will explain why. First of all, nobody is taking issue with the principle that the hunger of any child or adult in our society is a serious issue; the question is whether this Bill addresses the issue at hand. That is where we have grave reservations that, without regulations to at least try to salvage the Bill, it is simply potentially squandering huge amounts of public money. First, this is an unfunded statutory commitment. It puts a permanent obligation on the Department of Education without providing the money with which to discharge it. Pardon the pun, but there is no such thing as a free lunch. The £23 million or £30 million cost has to come from somewhere else. "There is no magic money tree" is a phrase that was in circulation a long time ago.
I will give way in a second. I know that the Members subscribe to an ideology that is akin to economies such as that of Cuba, which are economically bankrupt and where there is not an endless flow of money to be created. I will give way in a second. Secondly, the Bill is not targeted. The regulations could help deal with that. There is no link in the Bill between food insecurity, children who are not getting the food and nutrition that they need and the payment. The Bill seeks, purely through administrative convenience, to make the test — .
Amendment No 6 relates to the need for regulations. We need to have some systems, some financial controls and some operational planning in place for this. Those are absolutely necessary. At the minute, it is simply administratively convenient to use the test of free school meals. There are no safeguards in the legislation as proposed. We can only hope that regulations would provide those. I will also deal with the point that a private Member's Bill is not the way to deal with this. It is not filling a gap in law, and it is not a social clause; it is a permanent obligation on the Minister that makes the Department of Education the administrator of a new cash benefit. If we have £23 million, it can be targeted a lot better. Therefore, I support the Minister's amendment. However, I want to make it absolutely and abundantly clear that dealing with those who do not get the nutritious food that they need is a vital obligation on our society. Between £23 million and £30 million would do that job very well, but it should be dealt with through the Executive, not through this Bill, which is extremely flawed.
I agree entirely with the Minister. That is where the focus should be, rather than on this Bill, which would run the risk of those who are not in food insecurity getting a cash payment and those who are in food insecurity not getting a cash payment. I agree with the intervention. As I come to the end of my remarks, I want to clarify something for those who have said that the Ulster Unionist Party is opposed to the principle of the Bill: that is not the case. If it is dealing with those who are hungry and those who are not getting nutrition, we support that. I just think that the vehicle that is being used is entirely inappropriate. The Minister's amendment No 6 provides some kind of control over that, but even that is insufficient. I can clarify that we support the Minister's amendments. I have severe reservations about the Bill being operationally effective in dealing with the issues that Mr Baker, notably and to his credit, wants to raise.
623 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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