I thank Deputy Healy for bringing forward this motion. It is timely that we are discussing a cost-of-living Private Member' motion. The Social Democrats have brought forward a number of measures to try to support people with the ever-increasing rise in the cost of just existing, due to the cost of so many things. I want to focus on a number of areas and the first is poverty. We have been hearing for a very long time about the number of children who are living below the poverty line. It is one in five, or 225,000 children in this country who are living below the poverty line. The effects of poverty are lifelong. Poverty affects not only the generation experiencing it but the generation that comes after it. There is absolutely no reason anyone in this country should be identified as living below the poverty line. We are a rich country. There is no need for it and there are solutions, but unfortunately they are not being implemented. Poverty really does affect children's learning. As my party's education spokesperson, I have spoken so many times about the young people I worked with over the almost 30 years when I was involved in youth work and a school completion programme. It affects their daily life in terms of their learning but also their thriving in society. It is the same for adults. There is a lot of conversation at the moment about the hot school meals. They were brought in because there are children who are hungry in our schools. They were there before and they are still there. When you are hungry, you cannot learn. The fundamental difficulty with then stigmatising a child who is poor in giving them a meal has always been a difficulty, but the hot school meals have been fantastic in making sure that no one feels stigmatised and every single child gets a hot school meal. The shame of poverty is something else. Only those who experience it can truly describe what it is. The hot school meals programme will make sure that every single child in this country gets a hot school meal, but especially children who are hungry. Not a single child in this country should be hungry at school, whether that is primary or secondary school. I look forward to the scheme being rolled out in secondary schools because there is also a huge need there. Children do not stop being hungry after sixth class. They go on to first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth year and they are still hungry then. I really want to see that programme rolled out to secondary schools. We need to make sure the food that is provided there is nutritious and is something they want to eat. Getting that balance, as anyone who is a parent will know, is also a challenge. We need to work hard on that. There is the cost of education itself. Voluntary contributions should have their name changed to "not voluntary at all, depending on the school and how much pressure they put on the parent" contributions. Some schools will respect the fact that it is voluntary and will not chase parents for it because what they are looking for are the nice things in the school that maybe the school cannot provide. Unfortunately, however, schools are not able to be funded to the level they want to be. I know there was an increase but there needs to be more. A woman contacted my office recently. It is just before the mock leaving certificate exams; I have a child doing them at the moment. It is a tense time in households. The school her child goes to was badgering her for the fee for the mocks. She did not have the money at all and she said she would have to borrow the money from a family member. The school told her that if she did not get the money in, the child could not sit the mocks. What the heck? I do not want to curse but I am getting close to it. That is a disgrace. Other mechanisms in the school can be used for that; whatever it is, use it. She was not only being badgered about the mock exams, but she was also being badgered about the not-so-voluntary voluntary contribution. This woman was being put under so much pressure. It is not acceptable. Last week, the Social Democrats had a Private Members' motion about an emergency winter payment for disabled people. As has already been said, the Minister claimed we were gaslighting him and that there was no such thing as choosing between heating and eating. We are not making that up. We are hearing from people in the three agencies involved in getting that motion recognised. This is not made up. People in this country are struggling. I am very thankful to Deputy Healy for bringing this forward. I ask Government Deputies to really look at their constituencies and other constituencies, like mine in Dublin South-Central, where things are not great for everybody, and to identify the things that are really important to people. That is living properly, sustainably, living a good life and not struggling with poverty all of the time.

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