Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I agree with the Deputy entirely. We want this scheme to work. We will do the final roll-out in September so that every primary school pupil in the country will have had the opportunity to have hot school meals within their school. At that time I intend to stand back and examine at the scheme to see where it has been working and where it has not. I will be very focused on DEIS secondary schools during the lifetime of this Government as well.

The review that is under way is on nutritional standards. I will have the final report of that review by the end of December and will act on that because there are concerns contained within it. There will be 400 inspections conducted by my Department this year relating to the contracts between schools and school meal providers. That is a process I am also looking at to make sure it is more in-depth. The nutritional review is being led by a dietician under the supervision of the Department of Health. This ensures they are the expert person to look at the nutritional side and then the operational side of the programme will be reviewed once the final roll-out into the remaining primary schools has been completed.

See this speech in context