LAST UPDATE | 30 Mar 2023
THE GOVERNMENT HAS announced plans to expand the hot school meals programme beyond Deis schools starting in 2024, with plans to expand the scheme to all primary schools by 2030.
Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys made the announcement as she ppublished an independent evaluation of the school meals programme.
Under the proposed expansion, all school going children would receive one hot meal a day.
Humphreys has confirmed the extension of the programme to all remaining Deis primary schools from September.
This expansion is expected provide hot meals to an additional 60,000 pupils at Deis schools.
From 2024, hot meals will begin to be rolled out to all remaining primary schools on a phased basis.
The report recommends that the programme be rolled out to all primary schools by 2023, but Humphreys said today it is her ambition to move faster than that.
The independent review has also recommended increasing the funding rates for meal options within the scheme, which have remained static since the programme was introduced in 2003.
Humphreys confirmed that an increase in school meal rates will be introduced.
These updated for individual meals are:
When asked by The Journal whether this increase was sufficient considering recent food inflation, Humphreys said that it was.
She said that suppliers had been in contact with the Government on the previous rates and that it would not be possible to continue to provide meals at that level.
“We have been working with the suppliers on this and we have spoken to them. There hadn’t been an increase since 2003 in the school meals programme.
“And to be fair, they had been in contact with us and they said that they couldn’t continue to provide the meals at this rate.
“We have increased it roughly by 25% for the school meals programme, so that’s for the breakfast or the snack that they get in the morning, the lunch or after school dinner option.
“For the hot school meal, that price was set in 2019 and that’s now increased roughly by 10%.”
The report itself was positive about the existing scheme, saying that there was an improved attendance at schools due to meals being provided.
Currently, 1,600 schools receive funding from the overall meals programme, with 260,000 children able to receive meals at school.
The hot school meals programme, which first began in 2019 as a pilot programme, currently provides meals to 300 schools, with approximately 55,000 children receiving them daily.
“The expansion of the programme to all Deis primary schools and special schools will mean by the end of this year, 1,000 schools will be receiving hot meals – that is real progress,” Humphreys said.
“From 2024, we will start the roll-out of hot meals to all remaining primary schools. This will be done on a phased basis. The report recommends universal provision by 2030 but my ambition is to move faster,” she said.
“Given we have already expanded from 30 to 1,000 schools in just over two and a half years, I believe we can reach all primary schools sooner than that,” the Minister said.
“In the coming weeks, my Department will invite expressions of interests from all remaining primary schools countrywide,” she added.
“My ambition is that a child born in Ireland today will be guaranteed access to a hot meal by the time they start school.”
With reporting by Hayley Halpin
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