Search

23 Oct 2025

More Laois primary schools announced for hot school meal programme

The schools will offer free nutritious hot meals to students from this September.

More Laois primary schools announced for hot school meal programme

Two Laois primary schools are to join the Hot School Meals Programme from September 2024.

Sean Fleming TD made the announcement that Presentation Primary School, Portarlington and St. Abban's Primary School, Killeen, will provide students with hot meals in the coming school year.

This announcement means that over 50 additional schools in Laois have been added to the programme in the past 7 months. 

The Hot School Meals Programme provides regular, nutritious food to children in school to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them.

"This is very welcome news for both schools in Portarlington and Killeen," said Minister Fleming.

"The schoolchildren will now be able to benefit from meals at school and relieve some pressure on local families. 

 "The majority of schools in Laois are part of this programme and I am committed to rolling out this programme to all remaining primary schools in Laois for benefit of all local communities in the county," the TD finished.

Fine Gael TD Charlie Flanagan also welcomed the news.

“The programme forms part of Ireland's commitment under the European Child Guarantee to give all children access to a range of key services, including healthcare and nutrition," he said.

"It is a great scheme and is very beneficial for primary school children here in Laois. It was initially introduced by Fine Gael Minister Regina Doherty in 2019 as a pilot measure to 30 schools and now under Minister Heather Humphreys the scheme stretches to 2,200 primary schools across the country.

"This shows the commitment from my party, Fine Gael, to ensure every child has the best start in life," said the TD.

"And we won’t stop. I want more schools across Laois to have the programme extended to them as soon as possible and working with Minister Humphreys, we will make that happen. It is a great success and welcomed by pupils, parents and teachers,” finished Deputy Flanagan.

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys TD announced a total of 168 more primary schools approved for the programme.

“Since my appointment as Minister for Social Protection, I have grown the Hot School Meals Programme from a small pilot of just 30 schools to a nationwide programme which now provides nutritious hot meals in 2,200 primary schools across the country," said the Minister.

“My ambition now is to finish the job as part of this year’s Budget and ensure that every primary school in Ireland is providing hot school meals in 2025.

“I firmly believe the roll-out of hot school meals to every primary school in the country will be one of the lasting legacies of this Government," she finished.

Last April, 19 Laois schools were also announced as approved for the programme, along with an announcement of 28 last December.

Nationally, over 2,200 primary schools are enlisted in the programme, with some 345,000 students now eligible for hot meals.

To continue reading this article,
please subscribe and support local journalism!


Subscribing will allow you access to all of our premium content and archived articles.

Subscribe

To continue reading this article for FREE,
please kindly register and/or log in.


Registration is absolutely 100% FREE and will help us personalise your experience on our sites. You can also sign up to our carefully curated newsletter(s) to keep up to date with your latest local news!

Register / Login

Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.

Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.