Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael)

I join everyone else in welcoming Martin Hughes to his new role. I also pay tribute to Martin Groves and Bridget Doody for their work in their former roles.

When talking about two people who have always gone above and beyond in their roles, it is worth mentioning the staff working in our schools. A lot have come back in difficult times, experiencing issues with bus transport and school meals. A lot of smaller schools received notification in recent weeks to say they were below the number of meals being delivered and did not have sufficient staff to heat and serve the food because of the size of the school. It is a disservice to what teachers, principals and administration staff do in providing for students to say they do not have the staff to deliver this service to their students. A lot of the larger food providers are chasing bigger schools and leaving smaller schools aside. I have been out to a number of the schools. They just want to provide hot school meals to the students in their classes, who deserve that. Thankfully, we have been able to facilitate the majority of them. When they are told they should not be reheating and serving these dinners, the same principals are expected to be project managers, quantity surveyors and facilitators of every other service provided in the school.We should be supporting the schools with delivering this much-needed service to the students which has gone down very well. We should not be putting barriers in their way to getting that.