Laois councillor claims school meals scheme not catering for those with  dietary needs

WHILE hot school meals are a welcome addition to school going children not all can avail of them because of the lack of options available for those with different dietary needs.

To address the issue, Portlaoise cllr Tommy Mulligan has asked Laois County Council to write to Minister for Social Protection and the Minister for Education requesting that the Hot School Meals Programme accommodate children with special dietary requirements.

Cllr Mulligan said that the hot meals programme was introduced as a pilot project in 2019 and that today it has been rolled out in over 3,200 primary school nationwide catering for “in theory,” 550,000 pupils at a cost of €325 million every year, which “equates to €3.10 per meal for each child a day.” Cllr Mulligan who raised the issue at the September monthly meeting of Laois County Council said: “I support the idea of children receiving a hot nutritious meal every day, but there are a few flaws with the programme and serious problems in how the scheme is working and they need urgent attention.” He said: “Many families are having negative experiences in terms of the suitability and quality of the dietary options that are available.

“Many are questioning the nutritional quality and value of the meals and the lack of variety. Some suppliers are offering meals that are heavily processed which is leading to a huge amount of wastage.

“The scheme was put in place without proper consultation with key people such as school staff, dieticians, parents or families. The Department is saying that there is a review taking place and that dieticians will be brought into the system. But I’m in contact with the Metabolic Dieticians in Temple Street Hospital and they have requested on numerous occasions to be consulted in the process but have received no consultation to date.” Cllr Mulligan said: “The scheme was never set up for children with special dietary needs. The real specialists like the Metabolic Dieticians in Temple Street have not been brought into the conservation. These specific dieticians look after hundreds of children around the country.

“The scheme doesn’t consider children with specific medical needs, children that suffer with Phenylketonuria (PKU), allergies, metabolic disorders or specific medical diets. These children are being left out. It’s not fair on the child. It’s very difficult for a child to see their school friends having the options of meals, and they’ve no options at all. Every child should be treated equally.” Cllr Mulligan said that there are ten companies around Ireland that supply the schools with hot meals.

He said the companies: “Need to be mandated to provide meals for children who already feel isolated.” Supporting the motion cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley said: “My concern would be in the area of diabetes. There are growing numbers of people with diabetes, particularly young people. Also, obesity, colitis and all sorts of issues like that. The dietary issues do need to be looked at. By the time they get to adolescence, they’re on medication for diabetes and God knows what else that leads to.” Also agreeing was cllr John Joe Fennelly who said: “I love to see what the waste from this food programme is. I know from talking with people that there is a lot of waste. It a great scheme, no doubt, but the Department should have another look at it.” Cllr Aisling Moran said she had read a report recently about the rise in the rates of bowel cancer in young people, “they’re higher than they’ve ever seen it before.” She said: “All school meals need to have nutritional value and must be able to provide for young people who are lactose intolerant, vegetarians and gluten free. It’s currently not happening.”