Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Chair for his good wishes to the team and Department. The most up-to-date figures I have are that, at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year, there were 2,740 schools and 467,680 pupils benefiting from school meals. From September 2025, all primary schools were eligible. That is 3,200 schools and 550,000 children, but as I said, in terms of schools joining the scheme, there have been challenges. It has evolved very quickly. We have challenged the system but it is important in it evolving that we keep an eye that it is done in a quality manner and there is nothing in rolling it out that compromises food safety. That is where the delays are. There are no new rules. Some people are putting it out there that these are new rules; they are not. They are existing rules being implemented. There have been a lot of good and interesting local solutions that we have discussed that we are trying to see if they could work in other parts of the country. We will give the committee the figures towards February or March when we have a good sense of where things are at.