Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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650. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons that initially subscribed to the hot school meals schemes in 2024 and to date in 2025; the number of persons that have now opted out. [61006/25]

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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651. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of schools that did not opt in to the hot meals schemes in 2025; and the number of schools that have opted out of the schemes in 2024 and 2025. [61007/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 650 and 651 together.

The objective of the School Meals Programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them. The programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement.

The Nutritional Standards for School Meals have been in place since its inception and were developed by a technical Nutrition Subgroups comprised of:

• Dieticians from the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute of Ireland,
• The HSE,
• Safefood, and
• The Food Safety Authority of Ireland.

I have directed that a review of the scheme’s nutritional standards be undertaken. This is being conducted by a dietician in coordination with the Interdepartmental Group on School Meals. I have asked for a report on the nutritional standards to be submitted to me by the end of this year. In the meantime, food that is high in saturated fat, sugar and salt, was removed from the school menu from September 2025. Up to now this food had been permitted, as an option, once a week at most and only when selected by the child's parents.

The rollout of the Hot School Meals Scheme has been on a phased basis since the pilot programme was launch in 2019 with 37 schools.

In April 2024 908 Schools became eligible to join the programme. Of those 97% of Schools availed of the Hot School Meals Scheme with 1.4 % opting for the cold lunch option. Once schools become eligible to join the programme, they must conduct procurement to obtain a school meals provider and also set up a separate bank accounts for school meals funds. Both of these can take several weeks to complete.

The total number of schools and children benefitting from the Hot School Meals Programme in the last academic year 2024/2025 was 2,064 schools and 332,593 pupils. There were some 300 schools who had not expressed an interest to join the programme at the end of the 2024/2025 academic year. My officials have engaged with these schools to ascertain the reasons why. The main reason given was due to a lack of demand from parents for the programme.

This academic year will be the first year that all 3,200 primary schools and 550,000 children will be eligible for the Hot School Meals Programme. Applications for the 2025-2026 academic year are still being processed and continue to be received. Once the academic year closes, my Department will analyse the numbers participating.

I trust this clarifies the matter.