MLAs back holiday hunger Bill for 90,000 NI children which could cost £20m

A Bill to provide financial support for children on free school meals outside of term time has passed the Stormont Assembly.

Sinn Féin MLA Danny Baker, who brought the Private Members Bill, said “poverty isn’t a green and orange issue” as he urged unionist parties to support the legislation.

DUP Education Minister Paul Givan said the Bill’s passing would “shred whatever residue of financial credibility that this assembly retains” and its supporters had not made clear what services they propose he cut in order to fund its outworking.

The Education (Holiday Meal Payments) Bill requires that the 90,000 children in Northern Ireland in receipt of free schools meals receive financial help during the holidays, including summer, Christmas, Halloween and half-term breaks.

Concerns have been raised about the funding of the Bill, which will cost more than £20 million, and would be required to be facilitated by Mr Givan’s department.

The Department of Education has previously warned it is facing a funding gap of more than £800 million in 2026-27.

Speaking in the final stage of the debate, Mr Baker said passing the legislation is “very least that we should be doing as MLAs”.

“I know I will not convince everyone in this chamber, and the fact that there was a petition of concern as a threat towards this legislation near the end, I think says it all about this place,” he said.

“And a petition of concern has already been used in weeks and months to attack children, and has been used again later today to attack children, so I suppose I am grateful that unionism didn’t go thus far to punish children through a petition of concern, but I have no doubt that political unionism today is going to vote against this piece of legislation because I don’t believe they understand poverty.

“I don’t think they care, to be brutally honest.”

He added: “This is an opportunity for us all to go out in the same sort of message.

“That would be lovely today for all of us to vote together to say we’re here to work for everyone, for all of the children in our communities.

“Poverty isn’t green and orange, folks, and it shouldn’t come down to that when it comes to this vote today.

“And I would encourage those who have been against the Bill from the get-go to really reflect on that, you have to look yourselves in the mirror – do you really want to be an MLA who stood and walked through them doors to vote down legislation that would support 90,000 children?”

Mr Givan said he would be voting for the initiative “if there was sufficient funding within the executive” but that that “is not the position that we are facing”.

“I do think that this is going to be an historic day, but I regret to say, for this Assembly, I think this will be a date which will live in infamy,” he told MLAs

“Though no votes have yet been cast, we can say with a level of certainty that later tonight this Bill will pass its final assembly stage, and in doing so, it will shred whatever residue of financial credibility that this Assembly retains.

“This is fiscal irresponsibility elevated to a principle, the call for additional fiscal powers for this Assembly will rightly, in my view, be regarded with derision.”

The minister asked MLAs supporting the Bill where they “believe the axe should fall within the Department for Education”.

“If you spend money on one thing, you cannot spend it on another and I can only conclude it is an alien concept to those who are backing this Bill,” he said.

“Members speak at length about what they wish to provide, but they remain silent about who will pay for it and what services will have to go without, and when they do make suggestions, they are laughably inadequate.”

In his concluding remarks, Mr Givan said: “This Bill is well intentioned. I said it at the start, and I accept that. And I’ve said its supporters are sincere, and I accept that too.

“But sincerity is not a funding model. Good intentions do not balance budgets, and compassion, however genuine, does not remove the responsibility to make difficult decisions and choices.”

Alliance MLA and chair of the Education Committee, Nick Mathison, said his party would be supporting the Bill, expressing his regret that it is “likely to be the only clear anti-poverty legislation that comes before the Assembly in this mandate”.

“This follows a very disappointing approach to the anti-poverty strategy from the (DUP Communities Minister Gordon Lyons) which has been criticised by many in the anti-poverty sector,” he said.

He added: “We are all aware of the significant budgetary pressures facing the whole executive and, of course, the Department of Education and it would be remiss not to acknowledge that.

“But regrettably, as a result of these pressures, it is often the families who are least able to afford it that feel the impact most significantly, through measures such as increased school meal costs and when we are in a budgetary crisis, we need to be ensuring that we do not end up penalising those who are least able to bear the costs and that is why we have continued to support this Bill.”

UUP leader Jon Burrows commended Mr Baker’s initiative as a “noble idea” but said his party would not support an “unfunded” measure that involves “writing a cheque the education minister can’t cash”.

“The members in this house who are in the Executive, we all went to the Secretary of State (Sir Chris Bryant), we looked that man in the eye, and representatives from the United Kingdom Treasury,” he said.

“We said we had put our hand down the side of the sofa, we checked every pocket of every jacket, and there was no money, we couldn’t meet our existing demands, that’s what we said.

“The Alliance Party said it, Sinn Féin said it, the DUP said it, we said it.

“We couldn’t pay our public sector workers, there’ll come a moment in time that legally we couldn’t spend money, we would run out of money before the end of the year, like a banana republic.

“And yet, we have a Private Members’ Bill that wants us to add £30 million to that predicament.

“The Secretary of State actually raised it to us. He raised it to us and says, ‘this shows you do not have credibility’.

“This wasn’t a Tory Secretary of State, it wasn’t a right winger. This was a Labour Secretary of State, simply saying that ‘you’ve no money for this’. It undermined our negotiations.”

SDLP MLA and leader of the Stormont opposition, Matthew O’Toole, said it is a “moral obligation” to “to alleviate and improve the condition” of children experiencing poverty and the measure “has to be funded”.

“I think it would have been helpful to have clear statements, including from the finance minister, about funding it, but we take on trust because we care about the burning moral imperative of this issue that it will be funded,” he said.

He added: “We’re making a promise tonight for those children, young people, if we don’t fulfil that, the Executive doesn’t collectively fulfil that, it’ll be on us, and we, as the official opposition, have a job to hold the executive to account for fulfilling that promise.”

In the final vote just after 9pm, 49 members voted in favour and 24 against, as the Bill was passed.