Debate contribution: Education (Holiday Meal Payments) Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Ms Claire Sugden on 13 April 2026.

MLA

Ms Claire Sugden

Party at the time

Independent

Date

13 April 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Education (Holiday Meal Payments) Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5483899

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Principal Deputy Speaker. I support the Bill's Second Stage, because, for me, particularly at this stage, which is the principles stage, it comes down to something basic. Earlier today, we were talking about rising energy prices and the pressure that that puts on households. The reality is that that pressure has not come out of nowhere, and it is not necessarily new; it has been building for years. What we see now is a slow burn in the cost of living. Added to that are significant global events that, realistically, we, as an Assembly, cannot control but that are certainly making things difficult for families across Northern Ireland. All households are feeling it.

Some families feel it sooner and feel it harder, and that is because they simply do not have the same room to absorb the pressure. Pat Sheehan, I think, talked about middle-income families who may not necessarily be eligible for what is being proposed. That demonstrates the squeeze that people across Northern Ireland face. For low-income families, that pressure is more acute, which is why, when we have such opportunities, we should take them. Bear in mind that we have such opportunities only when the system is already not working. When the Government are not already implementing such policies, we have to legislate for them. That is sad. Something as fundamental as this issue should not require legislation to compel the Government to do something about providing a basic right, which is food. When we talk about the context of the rising cost of living, it means cutting back. For others, that means not simply cutting out luxuries but making real choices about whether to have three meals a day, two meals a day or even one meal a day. That children are part of that is genuinely heartbreaking. Frankly, it is a failure in a region of a Western democracy that we are talking about having starving children here. One of the few certainties that children have is that, when they are in school, they will at least get one proper meal a day. That is something on which we can rely. Is it not sad that that is what we are relying on? When schools close during the holidays, however, that certainty disappears. We should never be in a position in which a child's most reliable meal depends on the school calendar. I really struggle with the idea that we recognise need during term time but step back during the school holidays, when, in many cases, the pressure on families is greater, given the additional costs that come with having kids at home. Members have asked whether it is within the Education Minister's remit to provide if children are not in school. That is a case of "Not my remit, not my problem". I remind everybody in the Assembly that there is one Government. You all sit around an Executive table, hopefully weekly but maybe biweekly. You talk about the issues. If there is an issue with this being under one siloed Department, work together. I remember being in a Government in which we had outcomes-based accountability. Departments agreed to share, with one Department taking the lead. If that is the only objection to the problem, maybe that is how we make progress on the issue. I appreciate that, ultimately, it comes down to the bottom line. Departments will say, "That's a very nice idea, but, if I'm not compelled to do it, I won't, because I can't afford to do it. We do not have the money in our budget", but it is fundamental and basic. It is not just a Department of Education problem but a Northern Ireland Executive problem. It is also a UK Government problem. They must recognise that they need to give more money back to Northern Ireland so that we can share it out among families here. The numbers are great. Someone said that 90,000 children are entitled to free school meals. Please correct me if I am wrong. That is a significant number of children. It is not a couple of thousand children but 90,000. It is also not about creating something new but about responding to something that we have already seen, so it is possible. There is context for it. I appreciate that it is a different context of more challenging budgets and a more expensive environment, but does that not give us more of an impetus to try to support the people whom we are here to represent? The Bill is about food. It is about children not feeling hungry. Imagine feeling hunger as a child. We should aim higher, however. It should be not just about ensuring that children get one meal a day but about ensuring that children are being properly fed throughout the day and are being brought out of poverty. I appreciate that we need an anti-poverty strategy across the board, but I am not seeing that. I am not seeing any other action by this Government or any other. I have listened to contributions in which it was said, "If we had £20 million, we would do this with it". The reality is that you are doing nothing anyway. If there is action through the Bill, at least we are responding by raising an issue that affects a lot of families across Northern Ireland. People listening to the debate probably assume that children are not going without, but the reality is that they are. In Northern Ireland, there are children living in poverty. In Northern Ireland, there are children who are going to school and getting their one meal a day. That is all that they are getting. That should really concern all of us. I appreciate that there is a cost, but, as others have said, at some point, we have to decide what to prioritise. I also appreciate that it would be an ongoing cost. If we pass the legislation, the Department of Education will be compelled to meet the cost every year. We then have to look at what other Departments spend money on, because it is not just about the Department of Education. Members of the Northern Ireland Executive need to sit around a table and prioritise a Budget together. Yes, they will bring their own remit into those conversations, but, at the end of the day, it should be about outcomes. It should be about the people of Northern Ireland, who do not fit neatly into Education, Health or Communities.

Absolutely. It gives me no pleasure to say that, in Northern Ireland, we are not strategic, and we are not looking at joined-up approaches to achieve our outcomes. We do not recognise that there is an upstream problem with all this. It is sad that we need legislation to deal with that symptom of the problems that exist right throughout society, but that symptom in itself will lead to further symptoms, including in the justice system, and outcomes relating to educational attainment and achievement. All of it is relevant and should be taken in the round, and that is why it is so frustrating to me, having been a Member of the House for 12 years, that we are still having conversations about how Departments are not working together. We are still having conversations in silos. I am not surprised that Ministers are not really talking to one another, but is that not desperately sad? When they accepted the oath when they became Ministers, they agreed to work together in one Government. If there is one message that I can get out to the general public of Northern Ireland, it is this: do not be gaslit by Ministers into thinking that they are not all working together. Maybe they are not, but they are one Government, and they agreed to that. That is the responsibility that they agreed to when they took on those roles. The Bill needs work. It needs to be discussed, explored and tested. I appreciate that it is a Member's Bill, but, again, if the Government are not doing it, there is an opportunity for Back-Benchers to put forward their own legislation. We are legislators. That is what we exist for. I would like to see many more Members' Bills. I have my own Bill coming through, and I am frustrated that it is not moving as quickly as I would like. That is what this job exists for. If the Bill is not right, the Minister can take it on himself, and that would be a huge success. He can potentially look at other ways of doing this. Let us not just say that we cannot agree with it and then scrap it. Let us look at the problem and start fixing it. That may require legislation or it may not. This stage is about the principles of the Bill, and, for me, that is about whether we want children and families struggling in hunger throughout the summer months, throughout Easter and throughout Christmas simply because they are not at school. Would it not be a wonderful thing if our Education Minister were to say that they were his responsibility all 365 days of the year, not just during term time, because he recognises that, when they are not getting fed through the summer, that has an impact on their education? Other Members have talked about after-school clubs and extracurricular activities. That is education. We only have to look at how that develops children individually. Education is not just numeracy and literacy; it is development, life skills and all those things. We are limiting that, not just in the summer months but when they go back to school. Think how much more developed they would be if we actually supported them during their time off. We are too slow in addressing the root causes of why children are going hungry. It is not just the school holidays but throughout the year. As I said, the Executive firefight. Too often, we are dealing with the symptoms, and, in many ways, the Bill, sadly, is dealing with a symptom. That should not be the case, and it should never have been the case. We would once have taken it for granted that we are feeding our children, but we are not. Given the pressure on public services and the reality that nothing feels protected any more, I recognise that we are under really difficult budgetary pressure. The sad thing is that the things that we always thought would be there — the fundamental services that we, as legislators, assumed would be taken care of — are not there because people are making really difficult choices on the bottom line. The only way to protect fundamental services is to legislate for them. I will support the Bill at this stage. There is a lot of work to be done, and I commend the Member for bringing it to the attention of the House. It is sad that we have to legislate on this, but I think that our job here, ultimately, is to serve the people of Northern Ireland. In this area, we are not serving them.

1,866 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:21 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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