At a glance, the Green Party idea that every student in the State should get at least one hot meal during the school day, as part of a campaign aimed at addressing child obesity and food poverty, is impossible to fault.
Childhood obesity is a major problem, with one in four Irish children having serious weight issues, while the notion that any child would be allowed to go hungry because their parents lacked the funds to feed them during the school day is Dickensian in its cruelty.
But while the Green Party’s school dinners policy looks eminently sensible, it is hard to see it ever being implemented.
Successive governments, including one involving the Green Party, have underfunded the Republic’s school system and stood by as costs for parents rose. It is unlikely they’ll experience some class of Damascene conversion now.
The powers that be have dragged their heels when asked to implement something as basic as a nationwide book rental scheme – the like of which is standard in almost every country in the EU – so how can we expect them to roll out a complex meal delivery system?
The average cost of sending a child to a non-fee paying primary school in the coming school year will top €800, while the cost of a “free” education in any of the State’s secondary schools will climb to more than €1,300, according to a survey published by the Irish League of Credit Unions.
Subsidy from parents
That survey put the annual cost of lunches for primary school children at €116, and for secondary school children at €147.
The Green Party estimated the cost of funding its school dinners programme at €350 million a year and suggested it could be funded through a parental subsidy of about €2.50 a day.
That would see the annual cost of lunches climb to close to €460 a year, which would be unpalatable for parents already struggling with back-to-school costs.
It doesn’t just come down to money. Logistics are also problematic. Few schools have kitchens in which they could prepare food for hundreds of children, so that would have to be outsourced. And finding a place in which to serve the food would be a challenge for many schools.
A longer school day would be needed in primary schools, something which "may be of particular benefit for parents working outside the home," said Green Party leader Eamon Ryan. The teaching unions are unlikely to be so keen.
“This is the sort of initiative that makes sense,” Mr Ryan said. “I’d love to see what party doesn’t agree with it, and sit down with them and hear them explain why this isn’t a good idea. I’m very confident that in any government negotiations you could talk about this.”
