I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, and thank him for coming this morning.

I thank the Minister of State for being here. I love the saying that perfection is the enemy of the good. Nothing could be clearer when it comes to the hot school meals. The Minister of State and I both know that we are feeding 550,000 children across 3,200 schools and the amount of money we spend on it is €300 million. The allocation in the budget to make sure that every child gets a chance of a hot school meal is absolutely crucial. It comes under criticism and it does need to change. However, this week we have made those changes happen with more changes to come. It leads me on to talking about the children during the summer, Christmas and Easter holidays.

Two weeks ago, I was in a school in my county, Meath. I had a conversation with the principal about different aspects of the school. He pointed out to me that many children in the school are absolutely starving. As Irish people, we recognise that our parents were feeders. People coming into a house got a cup of tea and a slice of cake. In my house there were plenty of potatoes on the plate; we were very lucky. As a nation, we are feeders. To think that in 2026 we have children starving in school is really sad.

The particular school I am talking about does not get the holiday hunger programme. The holiday hunger programme needs to be rolled out to more schools and more children. This programme provides nutritious meals to children and young people at risk of educational disadvantage during the summer holidays. The pilot was introduced in 2025 with €1.3 million in funding to provide meals to children during these holidays. The programme has supported over 42,000 children across 500 schools which is excellent. It has only been in place for the last two years. Last year, we only found out in June that this programme was going to be extended into the summer of last year. It was fantastic but we were quite late learning about it.

This scheme supports those with the most educational disadvantage with one in five children experiencing food poverty during the summer holidays. I do not think it is fair that we need to wait until June 2027 to hear if we have the programme. We need to know now. Families need to know now. Schools need to know now if we are doing the programme next summer. The budget should allocate more money to the programme so it can reach more schools and more children. Although schools do not open during the Christmas and Easter holidays, we need to do something. We need to come up with some way of feeding children. The children who are in school are the same children who are hungry during the Christmas and Easter holidays.

I regularly use the statistics from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, whose representatives have appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Youth. Some 112,000 people came to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul for food assistance. In our towns and villages, we know the number of Christmas hampers that people are donating. We see them in our supermarkets and local clubs are giving them to families who desperately need them. However, the Government needs to do its bit to help.

I strongly feel that in this budget, we need to put money aside to feed children who are hungry during all the school holiday times and to ensure the holiday hunger programme reaches more schools next summer.

I thank the Senator. Before I begin to give the reply on behalf of the Minister, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the Senator's work in this area and in particular the research she worked on so tirelessly over the last 12 months which has contributed hugely to the reforms and changes to the system of school meals that the Minister has introduced. I have no doubt that he would echo that if he was here today. It has been one of the most important things undertaken by any Member of either Chamber in terms of influencing Government policy in this area. I again thank her very much.

In budget 2025 it was announced that a holiday hunger pilot project between the Department of Social Protection’s school meals programme and the Department of Education and Youth’s summer programme, formerly known as July provision, would be implemented during the summer of 2025. The pilot was part of a broader Government response to child poverty.

The objective of the school meals programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them. The programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement.

The summer programme is an educational programme which supports vulnerable children with complex special educational needs and those at greatest risk of educational disadvantage. The interruption of the regular school routine, social interaction with friends and other school supports presents a risk of regression in the learning, social and emotional development and well-being of these children. The programme supports academic, social and emotional development, ensuring children do not lose vital skills during the long summer break.

An evaluation of the 2025 pilot project found that 90.79% of schools that participated in the summer programme indicated that providing school meals positively impacted the children who took part. In 2025 the programme supported over 42,700 of our most vulnerable children with complex special educational needs and those at greatest risk of educational disadvantage. When looking ahead to 2026, 94% of schools surveyed indicated their intention to avail of the school meals during the summer programme in 2026. This pilot is a key initiative as part of the Government priority to combat holiday hunger.

In April this year, a one-year extension of the holiday hunger pilot project between the Department of Social Protection’s school meals programme and the Department of Education and Youth’s summer programme was announced.

Schools reported that the provision of meals supported attendance and engagement in programme activities, while also helping to reduce some of the pressures experienced by families during summer school holidays. The pilot has demonstrated the value of combining educational and nutritional supports, while ensuring that vulnerable children can continue to benefit from a structured environment that promotes their well-being, development and readiness to return to school.

The summer programme is an educational programme which is run during the summer months. It is a vital and targeted intervention that is specifically designed for children with complex educational needs or those at risk of educational disadvantage. The original intention and the continued emphasis of the summer programme is to mitigate the impact of learning loss on those children when schools are closed. The Department of Education and Youth has advised there are no plans at present to provide an in-school programme similar to the summer programme during the Christmas or Easter holiday.

I thank the Minister of State. This reply has said how great the programme is and has said absolutely nothing about what is going to happen in the budget and if there is going to be any money allocated for next year. I appreciate we are not going to hear what will happen in the budget. We will obviously get to learn that in October. However, I would have liked some reference to the fact that we will hopefully see this programme expand next year or see it in the budget for next year. I also note that it refers to the Department of Education and Youth, whereas it was the Department of Social Protection that rolled out this programme into the schools. I know both Departments work on the hot school meals, and I have commended the Ministers, Deputies Calleary and Naughton, on this work a good few times this week. However, between the two Departments we need to make sure that we have money allocated in the budget to roll this out to more schools next year. I am determined for that to happen. If we are talking about one in five, as was mentioned, that is 110,000 children and not 42,000 so you can see they are already 50% undersubscribed. I thank the Minister of State for coming in and reading this out to me. I would appreciate if he would go back to the Ministers, Deputies Calleary and Naughton, and re-emphasise the point that children are hungry. We would like to see that programme enhanced for the summer and to look at a way of giving out meals during Christmas and Easter. I appreciate schools are closed, so it is harder because they can use the schools in the summer. Maybe we could put our heads together and think of how we can feed children during these times, because they are the same kids who are hungry. I also thank the Minister of State for his compliments at the start. I appreciate it.

The Senator is aware that I know she has a real passionate interest in this area. I hear what she is saying. Unfortunately, as any Minister or Minister of State standing here today would say to her, as much as the Senator, the media and everybody would like the budget given out in advance, it will obviously be coming up and the announcements will be made within that. I will relay her concerns and the issues she has raised directly with the Minister, as I have no doubt she will take the opportunity on an ongoing basis to raise those concerns. I re-emphasise that the Government is fully committed to expanding supports for children and families and building on the success of the initial programme.