Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Not too many measures are universally popular but I think that everybody absolutely supports the hot school meals programme. I have always been a firm believer that it is not possible to beat a hot meal in the middle of the day. I visited St. Thomas's Junior National School in Lucan with the Taoiseach last week. We saw the children getting their hot meals. They were all sitting down around the table. They were having their chats and eating whatever they had chosen from the menu the week before. They had a choice between chicken curry, lasagna and shepherd's pie. It is a great leveller because everybody gets the same choice of food, which is important. I strongly insisted on not allowing some to be picked while others were not. That is not right because all children are equal in my eyes; so everybody gets it. When we were packing lunches - I am sure it was the same for Deputy Murnane O'Connor - it would have been very handy if our children had had hot school meals.

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