School Meals Programme
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-26
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Dara Calleary (FF), Mayo

Regarding Deputy Hayes's question first, the standards are available. They are published on gov.ie . I want to get a full understanding of that when I get the full report. I am not into naming and shaming. We will absolutely publish the full report and I look forward to discussing it not just at the social protection committee but also at the education committee.
On Deputy O'Rourke's questions, the holiday meals school pilot this year was very important. We do that in partnership with the Department of education. I think something like 40,000 children have benefited from it and that was really important. It was particularly focused on what used to be known as the July provision and those who take part in that programme. I agree on that issue of the summer provision and that is something we will look at. As of now, we are focused on this programme. On where we came from in 2019, the then Minister, Regina Doherty MEP, followed by the then Minister, Heather Humphreys, drove it hard to get it into every primary school. We now have it open in most primary schools. There are some we are still working through. I want to bed it down and then start to fulfil the programme for Government commitment-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-26