Ms Joana Caldeira Fernandes da Silva:

I would have to get in touch with my colleagues in the Department of Social Protection, which manages the scheme, to give that detail. Our role was to support the Departments in the development of the nutrition standards for that setting. As an all-island organisation, we had some lessons from the provision of school meals in Northern Ireland. That scheme had been running since 2008 and standards were in place since that year.

On the uptake, I can tell the Senator that since September 2023, the scheme has been available to all DEIS schools. In April 2024, it was announced that the scheme was going to be expanded to potentially include another 150,000 children. However, I would have to go back to the Department of Social Protection to get the figures for the Senator. I am happy to do that and could submit those figures to the committee after the meeting. The scheme has been evaluated. The hot school meals pilot was evaluated in 2021 and there is a published report for which I am also happy to send the Senator a link.