Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to look at that. However, in many cases, not every child in the school will want or need a breakfast because, for the most part, they will have eaten a good, nourishing breakfast at home with their family. The reason for the emphasis on lunch is that by lunchtime, when the children still have another couple of hours in school, they need food.

Perhaps we should agree to move to both breakfast and lunch being provided in school where appropriate. Not every child may require a breakfast - it varies - but the option should be there, particularly for those children who most need it. Other children might choose to join breakfast clubs. I have seen principals who have done this extremely well. If a school's starting time is 9 a.m., its principal is required to be on the premises to start the breakfast at approximately 8.30 a.m. The other reason I am an extremely strong advocate of breakfast clubs is that it is a very nice social time for the children to sit down, get their breakfast and have a chat with their friends before the start of the school day. Not all boards of management are in agreement. Certainly, I would like to move to a situation where both options are available. It should not be a case of one or the other. In a tight funding situation, we have prioritised funding for the school meals programmes. I anticipate being able to improve what is on offer. It requires the permission of the board and of the principal.

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