Louise O’Reilly TD welcomes government concession to consider not-for-profit school meal provision

Sinn Fein spokesperson for Social Protection, Louise O’Reilly TD, has urged Minister for Social Protection, Dara Calleary, in the Dáil this afternoon to remove the profit motive from school meals provision in light of doubts about nutrition, portion-sizes and poor cost-efficiency of school meals.

Teachta O’Reilly said:

“I have concern about the nutritional quality of school meals.  While parents may be able to select what their children eat from a menu of options, they cannot assess the quality of the food. 

“Serious doubts have been raised about the traceability of this food, there are cases where little to no information is given regarding ingredients of sauces for example.

“The best way to prevent us from going down this road of feeding children sub-standard nonnutrisious food in schools is to remove the profit motive.

“Minister Calleary responded in the chamber saying he “would certainly be happy to consider it’.

“The Minister also stated in the chamber that he thought ‘it could work’ from both a practical and nutritional perspective and that he will ask the ongoing nutritional review to consider it as well.

 “On Tuesday this week I attended a presentation in relation to meals on wheels.  The service is absolutely fantastic, it’s not just a delivery service, they’re really conscious about the quality of the food.

“I welcome the fact that you’ll consider getting the nutritional review to have a look at that.

“I think if we can, to the greatest extent possible, remove the profit motive from the school meals programme, there will be benefits for children, overall social benefits, as well as local benefits.

“You couldn’t spend taxpayer’s money any more wisely than putting it into the meals on wheels programme.”