Commenting as the Department of Education (DE) say a scheme to pay for free school meals during all school holidays until 2025 cannot be guaranteed due to the lack of an executive, Dr. Graham Gault, director of school leaders’ union NAHT NI, said:

"School leaders are acutely aware that school holidays can bring additional and unmanageable expense for many hard-pressed and vulnerable families. We know that many children are at risk of going hungry during holiday times and many parents do without to try to protect their children from the harshest effects of poverty.

"School leaders are rightly appalled that some of our children are at risk of going without food and, on their behalf, NAHT calls on our politicians to urgently take steps to re-establish the Executive to directly prevent the collapse of the free school meals payment scheme after Easter.

"NAHT is, frankly, tired of the shameful politicking of our institutions at the expense of our most vulnerable members of society. If our politicians cannot resolve this issue with urgency, we will seek an immediate intervention from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis."