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

Debate contribution by Mr Danny Baker on 13 April 2026.

MLA: Mr Danny Baker
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 13 April 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Education (Holiday Meal Payments) Bill: Second Stage
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5483981

Text

You will be glad to know that I will not take too much time. It has been a really good debate covering a lot of areas. At times, I thought that we were having a full Budget debate, with the Minister's very long way of saying no to the Bill. I appreciate what everyone has said. I have been honest from the get-go, since I proposed and carried out my consultation on my private Member's Bill, and did not shy away from anything. I know that it will have implications for the Department of Education. Today, this is my Bill, but only for today. It will now be in the hands of everybody else, and I am not naive about that. We will go into Committee, where anyone can table amendments. Honestly, I will sit and work with anybody to strengthen the Bill and make it better. I took my approach after guidance from the Speaker's Office on what a private Member's Bill had to be in this mandate.
The policy intent had to be narrow. I could not think of a better place to start to end child poverty. I think that it is a really good, strong Bill. It is not at all poorly drafted. It provides flexibility. If I picked up the Minister correctly when he spoke about money, it sounded as though he was saying that the Education Authority will put up the price of school meals even more in the time ahead for families who are already struggling. If it does that, the Bill will not have been poorly drafted. Rather, it will give more support to those who qualify for it.
I agree. Look, as a new Member, everything is a learning curve for me. As the years go on, you learn every single day. I have tried to think of the situation in the future. I believe that the legislation would be needed even if we had universal free school meals in the morning. It will not hit everybody, but it will hit the most disadvantaged. Members talked about evidence today. I met every sector that would meet with me, and all agreed. Every one of them provided evidence. I am sure that we have all been given it, because the reality has been expressed here, time and again, in different motions. The threshold to qualify for free school meals is very low. The scheme is for low-income families. The Bill targets the most disadvantaged. Are there people who will fall just outside its scope? Yes. That is why I said that it is only one piece of the puzzle. Can the Department for Communities come along and propose an amendment to raise the threshold? That would bring with it more cost, but would it not be a good thing to do? We should not be naive about that. I get that it is easy to support motions. I know that this is an ask of everyone, so table amendments to the Bill. I mean that. Simply doing nothing is not good enough. At no stage have I been able to put my hand on my heart and say honestly that there are any good anti-poverty measures in place right now. I do not see them. If Members have a better way in which to spend £20 million, happy days, but, if that is the case, where are their private Members' Bills? Where is the Minister's legislation? Let us debate the issue. I am giving Members something to work off. As I said, the Bill was mine only until today. After today, it belongs to every Member in here. I would much prefer the Minister to take the Bill off me today and implement it himself. I would shake his hand and walk away. I really would. That would be a good day at the office for me. That is where I will finish. I will not go around the houses on everything. There was a bit of concern around unforeseen consequences. I assure Members that I am aware of every possible outworking of the legislation, and I am working in parallel on them. I am genuinely not worried about there being unforeseen consequences at this stage. I will relieve any concerns that Members have about that. I am over the detail. I have lived and breathed the Bill for the past two years. I mentioned in my opening remarks the young person who was filling his pockets with food. I picked this issue because the community and voluntary sector and our youth sector are doing all the heavy lifting. It has been said that we will open the doors of more schools. Come on, folks: the community and voluntary sector is doing that, but we are not supporting it. That is what the Bill is about. No child should be filling their pockets during the holiday periods and then going back to school malnourished, but that is what is happening. Those children are then weeks and months behind their peers who are lucky enough, as I say about my own children, not to have to worry about having to do that. An eight-year-old should not have to worry about such things. Why is that so important when it comes to education? It is because that is their pathway. We still test children at the ages of 10 and 11. Come on: children are being tutored for that test, yet there are other children sitting there with zero in their belly. How is that a fair system? How are we opening doors and pathways for any child when the system is still like that? Minister, you stand there and say, "Yes, but I would have to make cuts elsewhere". Yes, of course the Bill would have ramifications. I also do not like it when you go straight for the jugular when it comes to the Youth Service. It is not lost on me that funding for the Youth Service will no longer be ring-fenced by the Department. There is now an onus on the Education Authority to provide that service. I did not want to go down this route, but Colin McGrath talked about something that I know well. Like me, he has been a youth worker. It is no coincidence that, in holiday times, there is trouble at interfaces and trouble in our communities. Folks, that is a cry for help. When the doors of the youth club are opened and pizzas are put on, the youth club is filled. The kids are there, and it is because they are hungry.
They are not bad boys and girls; they are just being left behind.
We have an opportunity to do something. If you want to say that I have drafted the Bill badly, go ahead. If you think that you could spend the money differently, that is grand; show me. I am going to fight tooth and nail during Committee Stage and the further stages. I am going to fight all of you to get the Bill over the line. I look forward to it. Folks, thank you for today. I will see you in Committee on Wednesday.

1,196 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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