School meals are necessary for learning it is hard to concentrate when you are hungry. These increases will have a disproportionate effect on working class families.

Workers Party representative Tory Dorrian has called for a rethink of raising the cost of school meals saying an increase of nearly 20 per cent was 'unfair' on parents who have more than one child at school.

Mr Dorrian said that even before the increase was announced he had received complaints that the meals were getting smaller and not as nutritional as they should be.

He said: "Parents want their children to have a healthy meal at lunch time. But this sizeable increase is going to make parents struggle to meet the costs.

"The Education Authorities should be in a position to bargain with suppliers to get preferential pricing for the ingredients they buy in bulk."

The Workers Party have been supporting the campaign to get every child a free school meal. All research carried out on the links between food and learning indicates that children find it easier to concentrate when they are not hungry and therefore learn more.

Mr Dorrian also says that it is his understanding that the education authority is probably going to introduce charges for schools that give music lessons and provide instruments.

"The fact that they are thinking of introducing charges for music lessons which are currently free will disproportionately affect working class families," said Mr Dorrian.