The Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys TD announced that 168 additional primary schools have been approved for the Hot School Meals programme. The announcement means almost 2,200 primary schools across the country are now eligible to receive hot school meals.
Professor O’Shea noted there should be no ultra-processed options available at all under the scheme as he suggested children could be tempted to select that option. He believes the scheme’s expansion is a ‘cheap political one liner’ and that it hasn’t been thought through properly.
Professor O’Shea told The Times: “When you are not fully resourcing the treatment side of obesity I would have a particular issue with that. I think certainly they should look at the balance between driving obesity and pouring €100 million a year into that and still being shy about treating obesity.
“The whole monitoring of it to make sure the content of meals is appropriate is not thought through and resourced. It’s a massive missed opportunity that’s very expensive. They will go for chicken nuggets, that’s human nature. You can’t have it there as an option because of it.”
The Department of Social Protection provides the funding to schools for the school meals programme. It is the responsibility of schools to choose their supplier in an open, fair and transparent manner in accordance with national legislation and EU directives on procurement.
Professor O’Shea concluded that the programme should be rolled out in stages, firstly to disadvantaged pupils. He said that if the initiative was done right that it could contribute to decreasing obesity rates.