Minister on Cork visits promises 'hot school meals' issue is being addressed 

Education minister Helen McEntee has said she is working closely with social protection minister Dara Calleary to ensure that every school has access to the Government’s hot school meals scheme.

Under the scheme, funded by the Department of Social Protection, all primary schools and special schools are eligible to receive hot meals for their students.

However, some schools now cannot avail of the programme because of new procurement rules relating to health and safety.

According to new regulations, school employees can no longer handle meals, and those meals need to be prepared in a room that meets health and safety standards.

Several smaller schools have been told by suppliers that it is no longer economically viable to supply them with hot meals.

Speaking after the official opening of Dromahane’s new national school building, outside Mallow, on Friday, Ms McEntee said it was “really important that every school has access to the scheme, full stop”.

She said that while a number of issues with the scheme needed to be resolved, the most important thing was that it was up and running.

“It’s there to benefit all students. It’s to make sure that every child, no matter who they are, or what size school they are in, has access to a hot meal every day,” Ms McEntee said.

“Any of the challenges that have arisen, we’re going to work through them, and I know that minister Calleary is committed to that.”

Separately, Ms McEntee said there had been a number of recent challenges in progressing refurbishment work on the special school in Carrignavar, with students currently being bussed to temporary places in spare rooms at Gaelscoil de hÍde in Fermoy.

She said that along with her colleague, minister of state for special education Michael Moynihan, she has been engaged with the issues and has spoken with parents about completing the works and reopening the school.

“The most important thing is that we have children in there as soon as possible, that everybody is supported and have their teachers and SNAs in situ. Really, the objective is ‘as soon as possible’, and we’re working really closely with the National Council for Special Education to make sure that happens,” Ms McEntee said.