SOME 900 PRIMARY schools are set to be approved for the hot school meals programme from today. 

The expansion of the initiative means an additional 150,000 children will now benefit from the scheme. 

The announcement will be made by Taoiseach Simon Harris and Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys this afternoon. 

The Minister will also confirm that any remaining primary schools who are not included in the scheme can now express an interest and will be enlisted in the coming months. 

It is the largest even expansion of the hot school meals programme, which first began in 2019 as a pilot programme. Over 2,000 primary schools will now be included in the initiative. 

Last year, Humphreys announced plans to expand the programme to all primary schools by 2030.

As part of this plan, all remaining primary schools were contacted and asked to submit an expression of interest form if their school was interested in being included in the programme. 

Applications for the programme were received from 900 primary schools, who will now be included in the programme from today. 

The Department of Social Protection provides the funding to schools for the School Meals Programme, and it is the responsibility of each school to choose their supplier in an open, fair and transparent manner in accordance with national legislation and EU directives on procurement.

“My ambition is that a child born in Ireland today will be guaranteed access to a hot meal by the time they start school,” Humphreys will say later today.

“The major expansion I am announcing today means we are now well on course to achieve that objective.”

The Government introduced an increase in school meal rates last year. This brought the rate to 75c for breakfast, €1.70 for a cold lunch, €2.50 for dinner and €3.20 for a hot meal. 

The programme received an additional €42.5 million as part of Budget 2024.