Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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84. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of schools under contract to a supplier (details supplied) under the hot school meals programme; the number of these schools that exclusively cater to additional educational needs; the number that are DEIS schools; the number that are DEIS+ schools; his plan to provide parents of children affected by the cessation of the services with a stipend while a new contractor is being procured; the options for school meal provision for children affected in the meantime; if alternative cold lunches will be subsidised or provided by the Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50376/25]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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The question relates to the sudden cessation of an element of the hot school meals programme. I am specifically interested in the number of schools impacted that are DEIS schools or that exclusively cater for children with additional educational needs. The Minister has to be aware that this news came as a bolt out of the blue for parents. It seemed there was no contingency in place when it happened. Will the Minister outline the steps taken and the contingency that will be in place for the future?

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. As she knows, the hot school meals programme was established to ensure that children across Ireland have access to safe, nutritious meals during the school day. It is a core Government commitment to support children’s health, well-being, and educational outcomes. The programme is being made available to all primary schools before the end of this year. This will allow 3,200 schools, which cater for approximately 550,000 children, to avail of hot school meals currently provided by 300 suppliers are across the country. Those suppliers are a diverse group of organisations from the large national supplier and regional suppliers to local restaurants and food outlets, as well as Meals on Wheels groups, which we will get the chance to discuss later. The advice my Department has given to schools is that they can procure school meals from any provider they wish as long as they meet the standards set out in the procurement documentation. The evidence is that the vast majority of small school meals suppliers are capable of meeting these standards.

The companies referred to in the Deputy's question, The Lunch Bag and Fresh Today, withdrew their school meals service at very short notice from 79 schools. Four of these schools are special schools and 38 are DEIS schools. It is highly regrettable that the providers acted in this manner, giving virtually no notice to the school communities. The Department immediately contacted the affected schools. They were sent information on 4 September advising them of the options open to them, including procuring a new hot school meals supplier quickly or serving cold lunches in the meantime. Many of them have already procured alternative suppliers, while others are in process. The Department is engaging with the schools that have not responded, to provide support. The programme is designed so that meals are provided by contracted food business operators. This ensures responsibility for food safety and legislative compliance is placed on those professional providers and not on the schools. This also ensures children benefit from a reliable, high-quality service while protecting schools from having to take on responsibilities more appropriate to the food business operators.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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We have known for months that at least one in five parents skip meals or reduce their own portions to ensure their children have enough to eat. That underlines the importance of this programme. The Minister's colleague, An Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, has said he will personally intervene in the case of one school in Cork. I have just read a newspaper article in which he confirms that. I do not think a nationally available hot school meals programme is appropriate for that type of parish-pump politics. Deputy Calleary, as the Minister, should be intervening directly to ensure that where kids are not getting a hot meal, it is made available. The Minister said his Department is engaging to provide support. Will he outline in his next response what form that is taking and if extra funding has been provided? My understanding is this information was available to the Department in advance of it being available to parents and that there was something of a time lag. Will the Minister outline that? Given that we know there are children living in poverty, and consistent poverty, access to a hot school meal is more important than ever before.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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We are agreed that access to a hot school meal is vital, and that is what we are trying to secure. My Department officials have worked incredibly hard since we were informed by the school communities that the companies were withdrawing. We have set up a new process. My officials are regularly in touch with the school communities involved. Many of them have secured a replacement supplier, because there are other suppliers who approached my Department to say they would step in. There are other schools where it is harder to get a replacement provider, but my Department is working with school communities to make the replacement procurement process as easy as possible and in the interim to provide a cold meal. That is not the optimum. I want hot school meals to be provided. It has also given us an opportunity to further pursue Deputy O'Reilly's suggestion from a previous round of questions regarding local providers, such as community food providers, Meals on Wheels and others. Some schools are working with that as well. Ultimately, the aim is to ensure the legislative responsibility for food safety is paramount. That needs to be the responsibility of the operator, not the school community. That is why we have had to make some of those changes.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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I will give the Minister another chance to tell me what the timeline was regarding when the Department knew about the service withdrawal and when the parents knew. This came as a bolt out of the blue. When you are living on a low income or a fixed income and you are trying to feed kids, you plan ahead. Parents had planned ahead on the basis that their kids would be getting a hot meal in the middle of the day. That has not happened for many. I am interested to know the details of the timeline between when the Minister's Department found out and when parents found out. Many parents had absolutely no warning and no chance to put contingency arrangements in place. Indeed, there was possibly no money to finance the kids to bring food to school. If the Minister does not have it, his Department should provide, in writing, a clear timeline and an explanation of why parents got absolutely no warning. I would also like to know what is being done to ensure this does not happen again, since we all agree on the importance of kids being able to access a hot school meal in the middle of the day.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I do not want to give the Deputy inaccurate information. I will provide her with the timeline. I can assure her that there was no delay. We were not informed by the supplier; we were informed by school communities. As soon as we became aware of it, we put the processes in place. The members of the team in the Department of Social Protection are continuing to work incredibly hard, for example by making phone calls very late into the evening. I want to thank them. I will provide the Deputy with a timeline. I have asked my officials to look at the make-up of those suppliers to ensure this situation does not happen again. This is not the Department's fault or the school's fault. These companies withdrew at very short notice. I will provide the accurate timeline, but the notice to school communities was a matter of days. In that context I have asked that we look at the contract documentation so this situation does not happen again, and school communities, teachers, boards of management and especially parents and children are not left in this situation again.