Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Dillon mentioned the hot school meals programme. The expansion of the programme in 2024 will cover an additional 900 primary schools. That means that by this time next year, we will be two thirds of the way to providing hot meals to all primary school children. My aim is that any child born this year will have access to the hot school meals programme by the time they are going to primary school. That means we want to roll it out to every primary school. That scheme addresses issues around child poverty, particularly food poverty, and it means children get that wholesome meal in the middle of the day. As I said earlier, I visited a school in Artane and it was lovely to see the children all sitting around the table facing each other, having a conversation and eating their dinner. It would do your heart good. There was not one scrap left or one piece of the tinfoil the food came in. I saw it myself.

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