Hot School Meals Scheme Extension Announced in St Thomas’ Junior National School Lucan

Newly appointed Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Emer Higgins today welcomed Taoiseach Simon Harris and Minister Heather Humphreys to St Thomas’ Junior National School in Lucan to announce a further extension to the Hot School Meals Programme.

 Minister Higgins said: “I am delighted that Taoiseach Simon Harris and Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys TD, have announced this further support to schools, which means an additional 150,000 children will benefit from nutritious hot meals”

 “Today’s announcement will see Hot School Meals extended to Holy Family National School, St Thomas’ Junior National School, Gaelscoil Chluain Dolcain, Gaelscoil Na Camoige, Lucan Community National School and Rathcoole Educate Together National School”.

 “Fine Gael is committed to providing the best start for every child, and the provision of a hot meal every day will further support families throughout Ireland.

“The Hot School Meals Programme was introduced in 2019 as a small pilot of 30 schools. Minister Humphreys has grown the programme significantly in recent years and over 2,000 primary schools are now eligible to receive a hot meal with plans to include additional schools later this year.

 “Last year, Minister Humphreys signalled her intention to rollout the Hot School Meals Programme to all primary schools.

“Applications for the Hot School Meals Programme were received from some 900 primary schools, and from today these schools will be participating in the Hot School Meals Programme.

Minister Higgins said any remaining primary schools in Dublin who have not yet joined the scheme can now express an interest to participate in the Hot School Meals Programme with effect from September.

“Schools that are currently not getting funding for hot school meals will now be able to express their interest in participating from September and I would strongly encourage them to engage in that process as soon as possible.”

Announcing details of the rollout, Minister Humphreys said: “When I was appointed Minister for Social Protection in June 2020, there were 30 schools receiving hot meals. Today’s announcement means that from today there are over 2,000 primary schools able to benefit from hot school meals. Every school that submitted an expression of interest has been brought into the scheme.

“However, as news of the positive experience has spread, some schools that had not signed up previously are now interested in coming on board. I am delighted to hear this, so I am opening a new round of expressions of interest to allow us to bring hot school meals to these schools.

“My ambition is that every primary school child in the country will be receiving a hot meal in 2025. This is well ahead of our original target to make hot school meals universal in primary schools by 2030.”