Welfare cuts ‘will see poor buying unhealthy food’
All-Ireland group, Healthy Food for All, is concerned that welfare cuts recommended in the McCarthy report will put a healthy diet even further beyond the reach of poorer people.
The campaign group highlighted research by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland which found it was 10 times cheaper to get the same number of calories from foods high in fat, salt and sugar than from healthy foods.
Chair of Healthy Food for All, Marjo Moonen, said: “Cutting welfare rates now is a very short-sighted move because, in the long term, it will cost the Government and, ultimately, the taxpayer many times more than the savings realised to treat diseases associated with a poor diet in the future.”
She urged all relevant government departments to play their part in promoting healthy eating.
She said while the Department of Health was responsible for reducing the effects of unhealthy diets, the Department of Education played a major role in shaping the dietary habits of young people and the Department of Social and Family Affairs set welfare and benefit rates that influenced how much people could afford spend on food.
Ms Moonen said the cost of a healthy diet as a percentage of weekly income ranged between 13% for an elderly women shopping in a discount store to 58% for a family of two children who shopped in a convenience store.
People also needed to have easier access to different shops that provide choice at affordable prices. “Enhanced local transport systems also give power to local people to widening access to shops that provide cheaper healthier foods,” she pointed out.
Healthy Food for All is calling for alternative, non-commercial ways of providing healthy food, including food co-operatives and the expansion of school food initiatives.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland which calculated the cost of a healthy diet using prices in March and April this year from three food stores — a multiple supermarket, a discount store and local convenience store that were based in Dublin.
It found that the weekly cost of a healthy diet for a family of two children was €141.42 in a multiple supermarket, €122.65 in a discount store and €272.90 in a local convenience store.
Northside Partnership project co-ordinator Linda Scanlon said many people saw takeaways as a convenient option because there was a lack of real choice.
“In one small shopping centre within our catchment area there are six different takeaway outlets. There are also two pubs, an off-licence and a small convenience store. There is no supermarket. What sort of message is that sending to the families living in that area?” she asked.
