Some 78% of survey respondents said their children “did not enjoy” the variety of food under the hot school meals programme, a Fine Gael Senator has claimed, citing “taste and presentation”.
Speaking during statements on the School Meals Programme in the Seanad this week, Industrial and Commercial Panel Senator Linda Nelson Murray said “perfection was the enemy of good” when it came to the scheme.
Nelson Murray, whose survey received 8,000 responses, said she completely believed in the programme and that the message from parents was to keep the meals but “make them better”. She said parents recognised the “value” of the scheme, but wanted their children to “eat the food”.
“There is no point in having a meal that is nutritiously perfect on paper if a child does not eat it,” she said.
“I remember a guy in the joint Oireachtas committee on education saying that perfection was the enemy of good. This really relates to this scheme.
“My survey found that 78% of respondents said that their children did not enjoy the variety of food, citing taste and presentation, and 80% said that children would be more likely to eat a fresh cold lunch than a hot school meal.”
The Senator stressed that these statistics must be taken seriously. She also pointed to the Department’s nutrition review, which she noted had revealed a broad selection of dishes and plenty of well-balanced choices, adding that an average of 85% of students in the assessed classes were actively ordering the lunches.
She added that teachers generally approved of the food’s quality and nutritional benefits.
Nelson Murray said she welcomed a move to age-appropriate portion sizes, and a Department recommendation to allow schools to choose between providing warm or cold meals starting in September 2027, which she said she had specifically called for. She pointed out that cold options like sandwiches, soups, salads, and fruit are perfectly viable alternatives, emphasizing that the most important factor is simply providing food that students will actually consume.
She cited the Department’s finding that food was left uneaten at an average rate of 18.9% – or 11% when factoring in absent students – arguing that this volume of waste was still far too high. Furthermore, her own survey revealed that 80% of parents who supply a packed lunch from home are still registered to receive meals through the scheme, she said.
Nelson Murray stressed the need to find a middle ground between strict dietary standards and providing meals that students will willingly consume, and set out examples from new guidelines which she said would change meals children are used to at home.
“A balanced approach is required between highly nutritious food and food that is actually eaten,” she said.
“Removing the high salt, sugar and fat content has to be a good thing, but if the food tastes totally different from the food the child gets at home, it should be considered. I am not advocating for bad food or a high salt intake, but we must take a balanced approach.”
She said the guidelines would change dishes that are popular with children, including pasta carbonara, sausages and chicken curry.
“Some examples on the new guidelines suggest not adding oil or butter to potatoes, rice or pasta, not adding salt to the water when cooking rice or pasta and not putting in bacon, so the famous pasta carbonara that everyone loves is going to change,” she said.
“The guidelines suggest no sausages, which has been really popular, even though sausages were covered in seaweed in many instances. The guidelines also suggest no tinned tuna. We eat a lot of tuna in our homes but it will not be allowed.
“All chicken curries will have to be served with brown and not white rice. Although this all sounds fabulous, it is very different from what children eat at home. We need to balance this out.”
Nelson Murray said the programme had grown from 30 schools eight years ago to 3,200.
Funding for the nationwide initiative covering such lunches reached €286 million in 2026, a substantial increase from its €54.3 million allocation in 2019.