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POVERTY is a word that will probably not feature too much in next Wednesday's budget speech. The official discourse prefers the more nuanced phrase, 'social exclusion'. But the poor have not gone away as education minister Mary Hanafin, not quite deliberately, revealed in the Dail last week. In 2006 almost 70,000 children will benefit from breakfast clubs, which receive 10.4m from the government. "The provision of breakfast clubs will continue to be a priority in tackling educational disadvantage, " Hanafin said.
The state's approach to breakfast clubs is ham-fisted. The programme is actually funded by the social affairs department and officials are currently looking at providing a once-off start-up grant to schools to purchase equipment with the money coming from the dormant account fund. It would be better if Cowen took a decent amount of money, funded the scheme generously and gave these kids a chance.
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YOU ARE HERE: 19 March 2007 / tribune.ie / 2006 / 12 / 03
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