To ask the Minister of Education why he did not include reinstating holiday hunger payments as an option for consideration in the Department's consultation on the review of the eligibility criteria for free school meals and uniform grants.

Free school meals are only available during term time and the school holiday food grant was an entirely separate scheme introduced to support those children in most need outside of school term time.

The scheme used free school meal entitlement to determine who should receive a grant payment. The school holiday food grant scheme was operated by my Department, on behalf of the Executive, up to March 2023.

The reinstatement of such a scheme would not, in itself, result in any changes to the eligibility criteria for free school meals and uniform grants.

It was therefore not appropriate for this to be included in a consultation on the options considering the future eligibility criteria for free school meals and uniform grants.