Financial controls are to be tightened on the Government’s hot school meals programme, an Oireachtas Committee heard today. It comes as it was revealed that yearly spending on the scheme jumped from €54.3 million to €230 million – an increase of 452% since 2019.
The Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today raised concerns over procurement and the use of public money.
Questions were asked over whether funding was allocated without adequate checks on how many meals schools actually needed.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has recommended that the Department should review its financial management controls.
The watchdog has called for available information, including school enrolment data, to be used more effectively to protect public funds and lower surplus funding.
It comes as a Department survey found that nearly one in five school meals go uneaten.
Food quality, waste and oversight of the scheme have been in the spotlight, while a recent survey found that around 20% of free hot school meals go uneaten each day.
2019 saw a spend of €54.3m on the scheme, increasing to €53.5m in 2020.
€58.4m was spent in 2021, rising to €77.5m in 2022. This increased again to €108.7m in 2023.
€181.4m was spent in 2024, while the budget for 2025 surged to €300m
The allocation for 2026 was €286m.
The figures for 2025 and 2026 were allocations, not final outturns.
Overall, it means there has been a 452% increase in spending on the scheme since 2019. The programme’s funding has grown more than fivefold since it began as a pilot in 37 schools.
A nutrition review carried out by the Department of Social Protection, which encompassed 360 meals and 54 schools, and published this week, found that school absenteeism “contributed significantly” to the wastage of food.
ONE IN FIVE MEALS UNEATEN
The department, which has responsibility for the school meals scheme, said that when absences were taken into account, around 11% of food goes uneaten.
This number rose to 15% for the older fifth and sixth classes, and fell to around 7% for all pupils between junior infants and first class.
Despite this, school pupils remain broadly positive, with a national survey finding that 85% of children liked their lunch or found it satisfactory.
The PAC heard that almost €34 million in surplus school-meals funding was carried over into the 2025–26 school year, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Today’s Committee meeting also heard that the hot school meals programme has expanded significantly since the hot meals pilot began in 2019, when funding was provided to 37 primary schools.
All primary schools are now eligible to apply for funding, with approximately three million hot meals provided each week to around 500,000 children.
Expenditure on the wider School Meals Programme reached approximately €230 million in 2025, with an allocation of €286 million for 2026. The scheme now produces around 3.4 million meals nationwide.
Government research carried out last month showed that cold food options and more flexible menu options were among priorities for parents.
The committee heard of weaknesses in the system for checking claims, with the Department of Social Protection having assumed that every pupil listed on a school’s application would received a hot meal every day covered by the claim.
However, it did not verify enrolment figures against available data from the Department of Education.
“The Department funds hot school meals based on an assumption that 100% of the pupils listed on the application form will avail of a hot school meal every day in the period covered,” officials heard.
The Committee heard that the scale of the €300 million a year programme means weaknesses in funding checks and monitoring a significant issue for public accountability.