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.
My Department provides the funding for food to schools. All schools who wish to avail of funding are responsible for choosing their school meals supplier on the open market, in a fair and transparent manner in accordance with public procurement rules. These rules clearly define the successful tenders responsibilities and obligations.
The Department of Education and Youth School Meals Procurement Unit with the support of the Interdepartmental Working Group on School Meals developed mandatory procurement documentation for the Hot School Meals Programme in August 2025.
The refinements to the procurement process strengthens the programme by ensuring consistent standards across all participating schools. They also reflect the combined input of several Government Departments and State agencies, ensuring that schools and providers operate safely and compliantly across areas such as food safety and health and safety. The legislation referenced in the procurement documentation is existing legislation which all food business operators would already be familiar with and legally required to comply with.
Under the Department of Education and Youth template procurement documentation it stipulates that menus must include a range of locally sourced produce along with a greater use of sustainable food, for example, in-season produce.
There is no stipulation that food should originate from Ireland only. It should be noted that under EU laws, and as reflected in public procurement rules, it cannot be specified that food must originate from a particular country. That would be in breach of EU single market rules.
I trust this clarifies the matter.
