School Meals Programme: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-30 ============================================================ Lorraine Clifford-Lee (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach I strongly support of the hot school meals programme. Despite some ongoing negative commentary from some quarters, I believe this is a really good programme. It is a programme that is designed to do something simple, practical and important, which is to make sure children have access to a decent, nutritious meal during the school day. We need to keep this basic principle at the centre of this debate. Sometimes, when I listen to the commentary around the hot school meals programme I am genuinely dismayed. I am dismayed by some of the negativity that has been whipped up around the scheme simply to suit the algorithm, generate likes and have a video go viral. This is absolutely disgraceful. I am dismayed when legitimate questions about how we can improve the programme are turned into sweeping claims that the programme itself is somehow a failure. I am particularly dismayed when a few sensational headlines, a few photographs or a few examples are used to create an impression that does not reflect the experience of the hundreds of thousands of children and their families who actually use the scheme every week. Of course we should scrutinise public programmes, and especially ones like these that are costing a lot of money. We should ask difficult questions. We should review nutritional standards regularly. We should look at food waste. There is, however, a difference between scrutiny or reviewing and scaremongering and undermining commentary. This programme is making a real difference. It is now available in approximately 3,200 primary schools and supports more than 550,000 children and their families. Some 3.4 million meals are provided every week, as outlined already, and this is significant. We need to think about it for a moment; millions of meals provided free of charge every week. That is progressive. That is modern. That is what a caring society with resources does. It is now deeply embedded in the primary school system right across the country. For some children that meal might be the only hot meal they get that day or even that week. We cannot lose sight of that. We cannot have a debate about the appearance of a particular meal, or whether it lives up to the exacting standards imposed by privileged commentators with little real-world experience, while forgetting about the child sitting in the classroom who is hungry. Hunger affects children. It affects their concentration, energy levels and participation. It affects a child's ability to get the full benefit from his or her education. It also leaves deep and long-lasting psychological scars. I spoke with a woman at an event recently who spoke with tears in her eyes about how she felt being a hungry child in school many years ago. Many years later, this experience still haunts her. Professor Katriona O'Sullivan and her story are incredibly important to this debate. Her memoir Poor tells us in very stark terms what childhood poverty and hunger can mean. She has spoken about being hungry for food but also hungry for love, care and nourishment. In one account of her story, she recalls her need for school dinners and contrasts that with the other children who could afford to be choosy. She wrote of the other children, the "loved ones" as she called them, who could complain about what was served while she would have eaten anything. This is an incredibly powerful reminder of the difference between discussing food from a position of security and experiencing hunger yourself. When we talk about the school meals, let us remember who we are talking about. We are talking about children who did not choose the circumstances into which they were born. We are talking about child poverty, which is a huge stain on society and something we need to eradicate. Children should be able to sit down at lunchtime knowing there will be food to eat. It is as simple as that. Because of the hot school meals programme, this is now a reality for children in Ireland and I am proud of this Government for making it possible. This programme is not just about families experiencing the most severe poverty. It is also about ordinary working families and financial pressure. A family with two children in primary school can save approximately €1,152 a year through the scheme, which is significant. As a mother of two young children who has packed lunches for many years, I know it is about more than the money saved; it is also about time saved, it is about the head space and the shopping, the preparation, the lunch boxes, the decisions about what put to into them and the mental load of thinking about lunches every single evening. Have we bread left? Do we have fruit? Will they bring it home again? In north county Dublin, people get up incredibly early every morning. People commute long distances. They are paying large mortgages and high rents. People are working extremely hard. People are trying to manage work, childcare, school, bills and all the pressures of modern family life. When the State steps in and takes away one of these pressures, it matters. It gives people a bit of a break. My son's school will be introducing the programme shortly. The kids are excited but I can tell you the parents are more excited. I feel strongly about the universality of the scheme as well. Everybody gets a meal. Everybody sits down together. Everybody gets on with their school day and everyone is equal. The children learn about food from their peers and they try new things and new food that they might not try at home. Yes, there are things that we need to improve. The rapid roll-out of the scheme means there are teething issues. The Minister, Deputy Calleary, has moved quickly to deal with them and I commend him. The two reviews, including a detailed nutritional review and a major survey of the children, parents, teachers, principals and suppliers, were really welcome and have identified areas that need improvement. They will be improved and the Minister has outlined what he will do there. We should be proud of all that the State has achieved. Children in school in Ireland get free school meals and free schoolbooks and they receive one of the most highly regarded educations in the world. This is something to be proud of. Our careful management of the economy and our resources by the Government has meant that we are in a position to do this. I commend the Minister and his colleagues in government on all the work they have done on this and every other scheme that benefits families and children in schools across Ireland. Go raibh maith agat. --- 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