Debate contribution: Free School Meals Provision

Debate contribution by Mr Mark Durkan on 25 November 2025.

MLA

Mr Mark Durkan

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

25 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Free School Meals Provision

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5259121

Read the official Assembly record

Text

As we draw the debate to a close, I want to bring us back to the heart of what today is or should be about. It is about children and the basic right to food, not party interests, not posing or posturing, not budget spreadsheets but ensuring that children have access to a healthy, nutritious meal, if the Minister was listening. The sad reality is that far too many do not — he obviously is not. Welfare reform, designed by the Tories and delivered here by the DUP, Sinn Féin and Alliance, has seen a 143% increase in food bank usage in the past five years. The approach of the Christmas period now heralds food bank drives and collections for community fridges, demand for which has soared year-on-year. I have never seen so many people in need of the basics. As we have heard today, one in five children living in poverty in the North does not qualify for a free school meal. Twenty per cent of the poorest children here are excluded by policy design. Working families and low-income families were better off under the legacy tax credit system. They got a wee bit more bang for their buck in a system where the welfare safety net could catch them when they fell, when the cost of living was lower and when parents could access school meal support and uniform grants more readily. All that was stripped away almost overnight when people were moved on to universal credit. The entitlement threshold, as we have heard from the Minister — his colleagues congratulate him for it — is increasing from £15,000 to almost £15,400, but prior to that, it had been slashed from £16,000 to £14,000. How is anyone meant to square that?

Will the Member agree that neither he nor the Minister listened to the first 45 seconds of my speech? They seemed to be deeply engrossed. I do not know what their obsession is with what my colleague was doing, be she the proposer or otherwise.

It takes some brass neck for someone to question the reason that someone gives for being somewhere or not being somewhere, given the reasons that they gave for being in occupied territory recently against international law.

Sorry, Mr Deputy Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. It shows the Minister's interest in hungry children when he clearly does not want to listen to what I have to say. It might not be that interesting, to be fair, but he is more interested in the toileting of my female colleague. What a weirdo. It is borne out by figures, Mr Deputy Speaker —

— with 3,000 fewer children entitled to school meal support in just two years —

Now, where were we? That is borne out by the figures, with 3,000 fewer children entitled to school meals support than was the case just over two years ago. Frustratingly, the four-week assessment period for universal credit here means that people are ineligible one month and maybe eligible the next. On top of that, there has been a 20% increase in the cost of school meals. Families already wiped out by increasing household bills are now forced to pay more for the most basic ingredient of learning, which is a full stomach. The Minister has outlined the more generous eligibility criteria here but has acknowledged that this region will begin to lag behind other regions on these islands. Scotland has universal meals for primary-school children; Wales is rolling out universal provision; and England is expanding access to all universal credit claimants. Here, however, thresholds have tightened, despite the Minister's efforts and claims. Fewer children are being supported than was the case a couple of years ago, and meal costs are rising. Last week, during the cost-of-living debate, we raised a lot of similar talking points, such as poverty, food insecurity, holiday hunger and the plight of working families on universal credit. We talked about our underpaid public servants, including Education Authority staff, health workers and civil servants, whose delayed pay rises and back pay are pushing them into debt. That is money that they have earned but cannot access under the current welfare system. That is not a problem for a single Department; it is cross-departmental and requires cooperation. Yet, while the Finance Minister assured me in the Chamber last week that he would work with his Executive colleagues to find a solution, when I followed up in writing, his response was, "Not me, it is the Health Minister's responsibility." I wrote to the Health Minister, who cited a bad budget. Let me be clear: it appears that the Executive do not value their own workers — the poorest workers, at that — enough to even cooperate. That is an abdication of responsibility. This is a cross-cutting issue and will require collaboration, but how can we count on Ministers to do that, especially when the Education Minister does not even view other Ministers as partners? The people who are paying the price are the people who keep our schools running, our hospitals open and our communities going, the people who have been stripped of support under the new threshold for free school meals and will now be hit by a 20% increase.

Certainly.

The cost of not doing this affects the more vulnerable children, not the children of multimillionaires. There are not too many of them. People do not have to opt in to this; they can make their own choices. There is a huge immeasurable cost. Where does the money come from for free school meals provision? That is the big question that the Minister and others have asked, and it is a fair question. This Minister, however, is not averse to coming here to outline ambitious and grandiose plans with absolutely no indication of where the money is coming from. The childcare strategy, anyone? The capital builds programme, announcing new schools that we will never see. The SEN programme, which is his priority — £1·5 billion. He is the Minister, and we are the Opposition, but he is raising expectations, including among families of children with special educational needs. In response to a recent question for oral answer, the Minister told my colleague, Daniel McCrossan, that he estimated a cost of £142 million for the introduction of universal free school meals. That had gone up by £60 million to £202 million by the time Mr Middleton spoke but went back down by the time the Minister spoke. He cannot accuse us of not doing costings when his costings are all over the place. We do not see this happening overnight. It is about setting out our stall and our direction of travel and taking a staggered approach. Let us start with the younger years — primary schools first — because early intervention is crucial, guaranteeing a healthy start and offering meals to those who need them, while recognising that not every family will want to take up the offer. The key is to make it an option and to remove any stigma early on.

I commend the motion. I regret very much how this has gone, but, as is the way with the Education Minister, he just cannot help himself, or anyone else.

1,209 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:57 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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