The provision of school meals is one of the simplest and most effective things a government can do to mitigate the effects of poverty while improving the learning capacity of all children.
For families that have no access to cooking facilities, perhaps because they live in homeless accommodation, a good nutritious meal can make all the difference. The same goes for children from families living in poverty, where in a very tight month parents might have to cut back on food. The benefits of a meal at school are well-documented: it improves a child’s concentration, motivation, performance and interactions with others.
A service that has long been the norm across Europe is slowly being introduced in Ireland. The hot school meals programme, initiated as a pilot in 2019 by then minister for social protection Regina Doherty, at a cost of €1 million, was extended in 2020 to 6,744 children in 37 schools, costing €2.5 million. This September, 884 schools serving disadvantaged communities will have the service. That is significant progress, and the policy itself is a landmark in Irish education policy, but its extension to all schools is far from guaranteed.
Indeed, question marks will be raised about the Government’s commitment to its extension even to the entirety of the Deis network given the news that 310 new Deis schools, comprising 60,000 students, will not have schools meals this autumn. That is because no funding has been put aside for it, meaning that those schools will have to await Budget 2023 to find out whether they are to receive a service they were all expecting.
Announcing a review of the programme in April, Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys said hot meals should be made available to all primary school pupils over the coming years. Given the squeeze on the public finances, and the inevitable pre-budget cacophony of calls to protect funding across various areas, delaying the rollout of meals would be relatively painless for the Government. But seeking small savings here is self-defeating and ultimately only stores up far greater costs for the future.