Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Wall. First, in relation to hot school meals, every primary school is now eligible for the scheme. It is a matter for the board of management to make that call. We do have a hot school meals working group with the Department of education, and we also have people from the Department of Health on board. It overseas the scheme and it meets regularly to ensure that everything is in place. For instance, our dietitian is working with that group and looking at nutritional standards.

As I said, we will have that report by the end of this year. This year, we also introduced, as part of the working group, a school meals holiday hunger programme on a pilot basis. We used that with the Department of Education and Youth. The pilot supports about 40,000 vulnerable children with very complex needs throughout the summer period.

Expenditure on the school meals programme in 2023, for the full year, was €108.7 million. We have estimated that up until the end of October 2025 expenditure is €196.8 million. We are definitely spending and investing the money. We want to work with each school but, ultimately, it is a matter for each board of management to make that call. I can assure Members that it is one area that takes more of my time than most within the Department to try to iron out a lot of problems, particularly that we have all discussed individually over the last three months. We are working through that.

Deputy O'Reilly previously highlighted the role that meals on wheels could play. We have actually done a lot of work with local meals on wheels. The Chair will be aware of the really good programme in Duhallow, which is provided by local groups. That is actually what I want.