'Holiday hunger' payments to go ahead this summer without executive

The £22m a year scheme provides free school meals for about 98,000 children

"Holiday hunger" payments to families will go ahead this summer despite the lack of an executive at Stormont.

The payments to families of 98,000 children will be given out over the summer holidays, the Department of Education (DE) has confirmed.

There had been doubt whether payments could be made without Executive agreement.

But the Education Minister Michelle McIlveen has said £12.6m will be spent to make the payment this summer.

However, a longer term plan to pay families the grant until 2025 is not yet funded.

• Future of NI free school holiday meals in doubt

• Holiday hunger payments not in place for summer

Executive ministers originally agreed in 2020 to pay for meals for eligible children during the school holidays.

Families received £27 per fortnight per eligible child.

But funding for the payments was only agreed until Easter 2022.

The department has now confirmed those payments will continue over the summer holidays in July and August 2022.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) pulled its first minister out of Stormont's power-sharing government in February in protest over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which meant its ruling executive could no longer function properly.

In last month's election, the DUP was returned as the second biggest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, but since then it has twice refused to vote in favour of electing a new Stormont Speaker.

Under assembly rules, no business can take place after an election until a new Speaker is elected, but their election requires support from both unionists and nationalists.

There are concerns that without a functioning government in Northern Ireland, the cost-of-living crisis cannot be addressed by local politicians.

In the absence of the executive, the education minister had the option of writing to other ministers to request their agreement to fund the scheme before school holidays at the end of the month.

Seaview Primary School principal Corinne Latham welcomed the payments to parents

At Seaview Primary School in north Belfast, about half of the pupils are entitled to free school meals.

The school's principal, Corinne Latham, said the payments would "support parents to be able to feed their children in a healthy way".

"We can't educate children if their needs aren't being met at home," she told BBC News NI.

"That little bit of extra is coming in for families during a period of time where there's so many hardships".

Ms Latham said the rising cost of living has left some families struggling.

She added: "We need our government to step up and step in and really put the needs of children first when they're making their decisions.