School Meals Programme
Dail Éireann — 2021-05-19
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Joe O'Brien (GP), Dublin Fingal

I appreciate the disappointment and frustration for the 92 schools that submitted an expression of interest in accessing the hot school meals programme and were not selected, including the schools referred to by Deputies Murphy and Smith. The level of demand for the programme is a clear sign of the need for its expansion and that is something to which the Minister and I are committed. Since the start of the pandemic we have worked with our colleagues in the Government to ensure that funding continued to be provided for the school meals programme, including when schools were closed over the holiday periods. We remain committed to extending the provision of hot school meals and building on what has been achieved to date. As I have already said, the Minister is actively exploring options for the possible inclusion of schools that were unsuccessful in their applications in the hot school meals programme.
Specifically on the Mary Queen of the Angels schools, the two schools have separate roll numbers so the Department identified them as separate entities. This partially explains why one was chosen and the other was not.
I go back to the fact that the programme was piloted in 2019 and it worked well. It was difficult to read the demand because of Covid but it was clear the demand was there. It was increased fivefold and we are committed to expanding the programme so we do not have these situations where there are schools that clearly want it and need it but cannot access it. We want to rectify that.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2021-05-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:18+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-05-19