John Whelan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for breaking his busy schedule on budget day and coming into the House to take this matter. There will be lots of headlines today and many different issues will attract the attention of the media, but one scheme that will not is the school meals programme. It is an undervalued and unsung success story in our social protection and education systems. I commend the Government on continuing to resource this scheme and increasing its resources. The Tánaiste, Deputy Joan Burton, strongly favours breakfast clubs in schools. It requires a bit of extra effort on the part of the school, with teachers coming in early on a voluntary basis to monitor and administer the programme, but the bottom line is that in this day and age no child in Ireland should go to school or go through the school day hungry. That is why this scheme is extremely important.

As resources become available and as the budgetary situation improves, as we will see outlined on this budget day, more resources should be put into this scheme, because it is vital. I would like to see an emphasis on the breakfast club. I would also like to see the scheme administered in a transparent and open manner. I know it is important to the Minister of State that we have value for money and an open and transparent tendering processes. There is quite a bit of money involved. We must also ensure that good-quality meals are being served to the children, that they are of a high nutritional value and that it is not just tokenism. It is important to ensure that we get not only value for money but also good nutritional value from the meals we serve. I am looking forward to the Minister of State's reply regarding how the scheme is currently being rolled out and how it can be improved.