The Oireachtas Committee on Education has called for the extension of the Hot School Meals scheme to secondary schools.
Since 2025, all primary schools in the State are eligible for the programme - although there have been some complaints about the quality of the food on offer.
However, in its report on the scheme, the Joint Committee on Education and Youth praised it as a “seminal initiative” and said its extension “has the potential to transform the lives of generations of young people”.
On Newstalk Breakfast, Social Democrats TD and committee member Jen Cummins described the Hot School Meals programme as “really successful”.
“It is already in a number of secondary schools and post-primary schools,” she said.
“But the committee heard that hunger doesn't finish in sixth class.
“In fact, secondary school students are often more hungry; they've got longer days, they've got a lot more subjects.”
Children at a primary school eating lunch in September 2015. Picture by: NorthScape / Alamy Stock PhotoCurrently, the scheme costs taxpayers around €330 million - meaning extending it to secondary schools would increase that sum to over half a billion.
“I think it's money well worth spent,” Deputy Cummins added.
“When the initiative rolled out originally, it was because it was identified in schools that children were hungry - and when you're hungry, you can't learn.
“That is still the situation in secondary schools in this country.”
When asked why the Committee believes that children from richer families should benefit from the scheme as well, Deputy Cummins said the universalism would reduce any stigma associated with the scheme.
“I think that when we have this as a universal programme, it means that nobody's hungry and nobody's stigmatised if they are hungry,” she said.
“In other European countries where it's rolled out, nobody's stigmatised.
“The committee visited Finland and saw that every single child is provided with a meal in primary and secondary school.”
Main image: School children having lunch. Picture by: Alamy.com.
