Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps the Minister will elaborate on this but from my understanding is that of the 2,220 schools participating in the programme, only 14 will be assessed this year. That is fewer than one in five schools. The review has been announced but we need to know the terms of reference as well. Will the Minister come back on that? How long will the review take? He said he hopes to have the review on his desk by the end of the year but is that the review of just the portion of schools that will be reviewed this year or is that an overall review of all schools? The Minister mentioned nutrition and a dietician and the standards he is looking for and that is what we all support. The one thing we can say about the free hot school meals programme is it is a really good initiative for a lot of children. It ensures that we know every child has at least one hot meal per day. This is what we can get behind and can work together on because at the end of the day we want children to eat hot food that is nutritious at the same time. I am not here to criticise. I am here to support getting the hot school meals programme right. This is for all children and something we all want to work for.

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