Guirke demands Minister overturn decision to axe school dinners for special needs children at St Mary's

News that children at St Mary's Special School in Navan, will no longer have hot meals at lunchtime - after the Community Employment Scheme which provided the service is was withdrawn - has been greeted with outrage locally.

Parents have described the decision as shocking and have called for the decision to be reviewed.

Principal, Maria Corredor has written to parents informing them that hot dinners will no longer be provided from 1st September.

She explained that for the past few months the Board of Management of the school has been trying to negotiate with the scheme to continue the work placement which facilitates the provision of the meals.

"St Mary's has been accommodating this scheme with placements for the past 16 years. This facilitated the school to have maintenance workers, administrative staff and of course, our essential cooks in the kitchen.

"It is with great regret that we need to inform you that the CE scheme is not providing us with any more staff and unfortunately we will not be in a position to offer our children hot meals from September."

Sinn Fein TD for Meath West Johnny Guirke has called on the Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys to reverse the decision.

"Over the last few days, parents of children attending St Mary’s Special school in Navan contacted my office after they received a letter from the school informing them that they will no longer be in a position to serve hot meals to their children as the CE scheme workers were to be withdrawn from the school.

"I raised this issue on the floor of the Dail with the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, asking for the Government to reverse this decision. He did say he would bring this to the attention of the Minister for social protection Heather Humphreys.

"The children of the school need routine in their daily life, the pandemic cut short their school time and broke their normal day to day life with education and family. Children learn to set the table, use cutlery and clean up after themselves at meal time.

"Once again, we see the most vulnerable in society been hit with funding cuts, this school has been using the CE scheme for sixteen years where they provided a variety of placements within their school grounds.

"The department of social protection can reverse this decision and put the St Mary’s Special School on a par with DEIS schools as children who attend classes leave there homes at 7am and in most cases may not return home until 4pm which is a very long time for a child to go without a hot meal."

Brian Diggins from Kildalkey, whose son attends the school and who brought this issue to public attention said: "This decision is absolutely shocking, hitting the most vulnerable in society. This impacts children across the entire county of Meath.

"St Mary’s is a fantastic school and the staff are excellent at what they do.

"My son gets on the bus at 7.20 am and doesn’t return home until 4pm. He has a very long day and a hot meal is needed in the middle of the day.

"However, this is not just about the provision of a free meal, there is so much more to it. He learns how to set the table, how to use fork and knife, manners at the table and the clean up afterwards. This is something he has put into practise at home." he points out.

Mr Diggins said the school should be treated the same as the DEIS schools and called for a review of the decision.

Marijan Boers chair of the Sports Development Project who operate the CES scheme said the Project regretted that, at the direction of the Department of Social Protection (DSP), they had to withdraw CE learners from St Mary's Special School due to cross departmental funding.

" Unfortunately this will result in the catering area closing, leaving the many pupils without a hot dinner. Sports Development Project have always worked well with St Mary's and they have provided training and employment for many CE learners as SNA's, caretakers and drivers. We are sorry the Department has taken this position. Despite our best efforts we have been unable to keep the catering positions in the school."

The Dept of Social Protection was approached for comment by the Meath Chronicle last week but are still to respond.