Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

Deputy O'Reilly is spot-on regarding waste. I get that feedback all the time. A five-year-old should not be getting the same portion as a 14-year-old. That is something I am going to engage with the dietitian on. The procurement of school meals is done through the Department of education. We have a school meals working group and I have asked it to look at the whole area of waste.

The second issue relating to waste is around menu choices. The challenge is always to get children to eat healthily. We are trying to ensure that, in the analysis we are doing of the diet and nutrition side, the food will still be attractive and tasty for children to eat to ensure they get the nutrition.

To respond to Deputy Connolly, we discussed earlier the issue of a particular group of suppliers withdrawing services. There has been no major change to the procurement guidelines for existing schools. The procurement guidelines have been updated for new schools. The guidelines are based on food safety, food health and ensuring that a situation does not arise that could be challenged for whatever reason. They also ensure that responsibility for the food is not on the school, but on the food provider.

See this speech in context