A FINE GAEL TD has claimed new rules around food safety puts the provision of hot meals at schools at risk and may lead to hundreds of classrooms around the country losing out on the scheme.

Parents were told this month to expect delays to the programme after it was announced that – despite the initiative being promised to all primary schools – up to 350 schools would not have access from September.

While the reason for delays was cited as issues with standardising the procurement process, now, according to Fine Gael Clare TD Joe Cooney, updated rules around the preparation, transportation and disposal of meals may cut off hundreds of schools from the scheme.

The scheme was promised to all primary schools from September in last year’s Budget. It provides children in with one hot meal per day and funding is allocated directly to schools, which then sources and pays for their own suppliers.

According to Cooney, one of these suppliers, which is based in Nenagh, Co Tippeary and which provides hot meals to at least ten schools in Co Clare, has informed its clients that new food safety regulations mean it can no longer fulfil the deliveries.

Schools, under the new rules, are no longer allowed to send food waste to their pupils’ homes for composting – meaning they must budget for additional costs associated with the disposal of the dinners.

Under the new rules, dedicated food preparation rooms must also be present at every site.

This means meals can no longer be prepared at one school and delivered to other schools nearby, known as a ‘hot-drop’, as dinners cooked off-site must be consumed in under two hours.

Cooney told The Journal that he believes this is a “serious issue” which will have a particularly bad impact on rural schools, who may rely on each other to assist in the provision of hot meals. 

He said schools “don’t know how they are going to contact parents”, who may be expecting that their children will receive meals on Monday.

A total of 19 schools – in counties Clare, Kerry and Galway – have also been informed, by a separate supplier, that it can no longer provide the service, Cooney said. This has resulted in six job losses, he claimed.

“This has come as a bolt from the blue for schools,” Cooney said this evening. “There was no advance notice of these changes and they appear to have caught everyone completely off guard”.

Cooney criticised the delayed set-up of a dedicated taskforce aimed at assisting schools in the procurement process of suppliers and said “urgent action” is needed from government to resolve this issue.

The taskforce, made up of officials from the Social Protection and Education departments, the food safety authority, the internal school procurement unit, the HSE and other agencies, was set up in June.

“This group should have been in place months ago when it was clear that new guidance was being developed,” Cooney said. “Instead, we now face the real risk that hundreds of schools will be left without access to hot meals from Monday.”

Opposition politicians have criticised government over the roll-out of the scheme, due to previously-reported procurement issues. The Department of Social Protection had yet to finalise a document to assist with the process at the start of this month.

Social Democrats education spokesperson Jen Cummins said the delay was a “disgrace”. 

The Department of Education and Department of Social Protection have been approached for comment.

With reporting by Jane Matthews and Emma Hickey