The story comes amid questions being raised about the operation of the scheme and the quality of the food being distributed to children. Renowned chef Darina Allen said questions were being raised about the scheme, that food was being mass-produced and delivered on long journeys from centres far from schools. She also said that the food was being over-processed and that such food was harmful to children.

Allen was speaking at a meeting of the Joint Education Committee this week. At the same meeting, non-governmental organisations Barnardos and Saint Vincent de Paul said the scheme meant that all children had access to hot meals.

In an opinion piece in The Journal this morning, Jen Cummins, a Social Democratic Party MP, said that the intention behind the scheme was good but that the implementation was lacking.

The principals of the Corca Dhuibhne schools, Baile an Fheirtéirigh National School, Naomh Eirc National School and Scoil Caitlín Naofa, made the petition after the company that was to provide the hot meals to the schools’ pupils announced that they were withdrawing from the agreement.

The Lunch Bag based in Nenagh, Tipperary, which has won numerous awards for the quality of its service and meals it provides, announced just before the Christmas holidays that it would not be continuing with the service to the three schools.

In a statement shared by the schools with The Journal, they said that the case highlights the great difficulties faced by small rural schools with the Hot Meals Scheme.

“This scheme involves a significant amount of paperwork and administrative burden for principals,” the statement said. “Furthermore, few food companies are willing to accept small schools, due to low numbers of children and logistical costs.”

“Under the new rules, catering companies are now required to provide parents with a digital app, which creates additional obstacles for suppliers.

“Small schools cannot reheat pre-made food on site because they do not have the funding to employ someone in the school to do that work.”

The schools are now asking the Department to urgently review the implementation of the scheme, particularly in small rural schools, so that children can receive the meals they have been promised as soon as possible.

“The Department needs to look at the rules and conditions they have set for companies that would be interested in serving schools because all the apps and conditions they want are going against local companies,” the principal of Scoil Chaitlin Naofa, Mairéad Uí Dhubhghaill Bric, told The Journal.

“That’s where you’d get the freshest and best food.”

The Journal has asked the Department of Social Protection and The Lunch Bag for comments on the concerns raised by schools in west Dundee whose pupils have been left on the empty beach.

This is not the first time that Gaeltacht schools have been left out of the hot meals scheme due to problems with the rules. Last September, the headteacher of Scoil Náisiúnta Leitir Mealláin gave an insight into the difficulties his school and other schools in Connemara were having with the scheme.