School Meals Programme: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-30 ============================================================ Anne Rabbitte (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach I thank the Minister for his opening remarks. I, too, welcome the opportunity to speak on the statements on the school meals programme, in particular on the recent nutrition review and survey findings. I begin by saying clearly that I am supportive of the school meals programme. I believe it is one of the most important supports we can provide to children and families across Ireland. The programme is about much more than providing a meal at lunchtime. It is about ensuring that a child can sit down in school alongside their classmates and have access to nutritious food without being dependent on their family circumstances or household income. It is about health, educational opportunity, reducing pressures on families, and, importantly, tackling inequality and child poverty. The programme has grown enormously, as Minister said, since it began as a small pilot back in 2019, and today approximately 550,000 primary school children are eligible for hot meals across 3,200 schools, and the wider school meals programme supports approximately 682,000 children. That scale tells us something important. This is no longer a small or peripheral scheme. It is a major national programme and a major investment in our children, and we should be proud of that. The purpose of the programme is clear: to provide regular, nutritious food to children so they can fully participate in and benefit from their education. The Department of Social Protection recognises that the programme is an important part of policy supporting children's attendance and educational achievement. There was a lot about children's attendance at school in the news today, and it is important that if they have a regular meal, it is actually a factor of attending school as well. There are also other important health dimensions. The nutrition standards for school meals were developed under the Healthy Ireland framework and are intended to align school meals with our national healthy eating guidelines. The Healthy Ireland guidelines promote vegetables, fruit, wholemeal, wholegrain foods and balanced meals, while encouraging appropriate portions and healthier choice. That matters because the food that a child eats is not simply about satisfying hunger for one afternoon. It is about growth and development, concentration and well-being, and establishing healthy eating from a young age. In some cases, the meal provided in school will represent a particularly significant part of the food that the child eats during the day, so we have a responsibility to make sure the food we provide is nutritious, balanced and of a high standard. I compliment the Minister and his Department on engaging with a nutritionist and bringing a nutritionist on board to support. That has to be recognised because there was no nutritionist at the start, and the Department brought the nutritionist in to ensure it had that done. It is important we acknowledge the positive findings. The review found a wide variety of meals being offered across the scheme with good availability of nutritious and well-balanced options, and as the Minister said, it found that 82% of the meals analysed did not contain foods considered high in fat, salt or sugar. Teachers and school leaders also gave positive assessments of the meals, with 78% of teachers rating their nutritional value as acceptable, good or excellent, and 79% giving the same rating for quality. The national Ipsos B&A survey also gives us strong evidence that the programme is valued. It gathered responses from more than 95,000 people, including parents, guardians, children, teachers, school leaders and suppliers across 747 schools. The findings show that the programme is deeply embedded in participating primary schools and that its benefits are particularly recognised in DEIS schools. So, when we discuss improvements to the programme, we should not lose sight of what is working. We should build on it. The review does, however, identify some areas where improvements are needed. There is need for greater consistency in nutritional quality, and there should be increased provision of vegetables, fruit, salads and wholegrain foods. We need stronger and more inclusive options for children with different dietary requirements, including vegetarian and vegan children. There is also a need for age-appropriate portion sizes. We must also address food waste. The review found an average of 18.9% of meals were uneaten across all classes, although that fell to 11.1% when absences were taken into account. That is an issue we cannot ignore. Equally, food waste should not simply be treated as a reason to question the principle of providing meals. Better menu choices, appropriate portion sizes, greater flexibility and ensuring children are offered food that they will actually eat can help. Any of us who have reared kids at home ourselves know that we can always have that one fussy eater in the house. I have three, and Covid left me a vegan, so I understand the challenges trying to cater for 650,000 kids. It is not simple, but we will do our best. There is another issue I want to raise today and it is one that requires attention. This is the access to the programme for four primary schools on the Loop Head peninsula. These four schools are currently unable to secure a provider for the school meals programme. This is particularly concerning because all four are DEIS schools. These are schools serving communities experiencing social and economic disadvantage as well as very real challenges associated with rural isolation. There is a particular irony in this because the school meals programme was designed to support children and schools where need is greatest, yet we have four schools in an area of rural disadvantage that are struggling to access the very programme intended to support them. These schools were also part of the original cohort of schools to receive hot meals before the programme was expanded nationally. There is a real sense of disappointment for those schools and those families that, having been among the early participants, they now find themselves in a position where they cannot secure a provider. We need to recognise the practical reality of delivering services in rural Ireland. The Loop Head peninsula is geographically remote, and I thank Councillor Rita McInerney for bringing it to my attention last Sunday in Ennis in relation to the four schools. I do not think she knew I would be discussing the hot meals programme today when she was telling me all of this. I told her that I, as a Senator, would do whatever I could to help her and that of course I would do my very best, so I am raising it here with the Minister. Councillor McInerney really wants to support these schools. She is providing meals through the cold meals programme because she really wants to support them. At the moment, it is down to costs, to be quite honest, but there are four schools there. I raise this issue not as a criticism; quite the opposite. I raise it because I believe so strongly in what the programme is trying to achieve. We have invested significantly in creating a national programme. We have established nutritional standards. We have expanded it to reach hundreds of thousands of children. We have independent evidence telling us that parents, children and schools value it, and we have evidence showing that the meals being provided are, in the main, nutritious and balanced. We also have evidence showing us where improvements need to be made. I compliment the Minister and his entire team on the school meals programme. Can we look at the Loop Head issue? If there are other situations like the one in Loop Head, they should also be considered. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-09-30/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-30