Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this issue and for giving the Department the opportunity to reassure the House that the Department is committed to ensuring that all children can access education suitable to their needs. I take the Senator's point in regard to the school meals programme. Deputy Humphreys and I are committed to rolling this out to as wide a group as possible. There has been significant growth in this over recent years. The coming 12 months will see one of the biggest leaps we have made. It is a no-brainer in terms of the policy going forward. It is a question of resourcing it in a fair way in order to make school meals available to all children as soon as possible.