Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

As we discussed earlier, the objective of the school meals programme is to provide regular nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them. The programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement. In budget 2025, it was announced that the hot school meals scheme would be extended to all remaining primary schools in 2025. By the end of this year, approximately 3,700 schools and 682,000 children will be eligible for the school meals programme.

Under the school meals programme, the primary relationship is between the school and the supplier. The Department provides the funding for the meals directly to each school. It is the responsibility of a school board to administer the programme in its school building, including handling the procurement process in accordance with the rules and guidelines set out by the schools procurement unit of the Department of Education and Youth.

Wherever food is eaten, there will always be the challenge of waste and packaging. Prior to the school meals programme it may have been sandwiches wrapped in cellophane or plastic water and fruit juice bottles sometimes left unopened and uneaten at the end of a school bag. Under the school meals programme this issue is perhaps more evident than before. Therefore, it is clear, as stipulated by the schools procurement unit, that the school meal supplier is responsible for operating policies that progressively address environmental considerations, including waste and packaging. In addition, under tender documentation requirements, the supplier shall make all reasonable efforts to minimise adverse environmental impact in the methods of service delivery and in the materials used. We do not collect, and we do not have access to, the details of the wastage from school meals. This is managed at school level in accordance with the relative contract. However, I have recently made funding available to the Department of Health to employ a dietician, who will be based in that Department, to examine the nutritional content of school meals and to look at the waste issues.

It is clear from feedback from colleagues and schools that waste is an issue we need to look at.

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