The Hot School Meals Scheme is now available to every primary school in the country having begun as a pilot project in 2019. There has been a lot of commentary recently, however, regarding the quality of the food, the nutritional content of the food and how the food is transported to schools as well as the pressure the scheme is putting on primary schools.
Fine Gael commissioned a nationwide survey to assess parental and stakeholder perspectives on the Programme. The survey ran from 6th January to 18th February 2026 and received almost 8,000 responses.
Survey Findings
80%
Four out of every five respondents (80%) said that the children will be more likely to eat a fresh cold lunch rather than a hot school meal.
43%
More than two out of every five respondents (43%) said that they are planning to continue to avail of the hot school meal scheme in its current format.
41%
More than two-in-five (41%) said they don’t like the presentation of food.
78%
Almost four-fifths (78%) of respondents said their children did not enjoy the variety of food.
56%
56% avail of the meals everyday, with almost one-quarter availing ‘some days’.
29%
29% said they prefer food from home and 6% put down dietary needs as a reason why they don’t
like the meals.
64%
Almost two-thirds (64%) said they felt the food wasn’t nutritional with 36% expressing that they did find the food nutritional.
53%
53% said that the current menu options accommodate plain eating habits.
51%
More than half (51%) said that the current menu options meet their children’s dietary requirements.
16%
Only 16% of the respondents said that a cold food option was offered at their school.
80%
Four out of every five (80%) parents who took part in the survey confirmed that they are sending in their own prepared school lunch as another option. However, the parents do not ‘opt out’ of the hot school meal when sending in their child’s lunch. Two-thirds said that they don’t opt out of the hot school meal when sending in lunch.
73%
Almost three out of every four respondents (73%) said that they feel the quality issue is because the food is not being cooked centrally.
76%
More than three-quarters (76%) said that leftover food is being sent home and 75% said that the remainder of food leftover is greater than 50%.
93%
93% of people who responded currently have the Hot School Meals programme in their child’s school.