In the late 1960s, in a bold and unorthodox move, the government of Ireland introduced the free milk scheme for primary school children. Under the terms of the scheme, pushed through an unwilling Dail by the socialist minister for education, every child aged from 4 to 7 and in full time education would be supplied with a quarter of a pint of fresh milk every day regardless of his or her weekly pocket money. The system functioned well for some time but was eventually hit by a combination of a demographic boom and a turn to the right in national politics.

In short, by 1975 there were three times as many low babies, high babies and junior infants as there had been when the free milk scheme was set up and yet the amount of milk being doled out was unchanged. The low babies, high babies and junior infants had not been sitting on their hands while this situation was developing, of course. Over the years they had dug deeper into their pocket money, using it to buy milk in school tuck shops. Others, less fortunate, took on newspaper rounds to earn the necessary money to pay for milk supplied by private dairies exploiting the neglect in public spending. Unfortunately, the quality of the “private milk,” as it became known, was not always what it should have been. Instead of the full-fat, creamy, rich, tasty state-supplied milk, it was frequently watered down and sometimes even sugared, which, along with the toil of working after school meant that the little children on private milk were often poor students: distracted, quarrelsome and sometimes sleepy. Many seemed to think that because they were paying five new pence a week for their milk that they did not have to do any sums or spellings in class. There were other abuses of the system. It was complained that the big children (aged 6 and even 7) were hogging all the creamiest milk for themselves while the small and/or less well off children had to make do with the leftovers.

Primary school demagogues appeared, condemning the “fiction” and “hypocrisy” of free milk. “Since it’s not really free for most kids,” they said, “it shouldn’t be free for any.” Other more sober six year olds argued that if low babies, high babies and junior infants had to pay for their own milk they would not waste it by spillage, dribbling and milk-fights. Still others – mostly ignored – pointed out that by halting the purchase of a consignment of 16-inch pandy bats from the US, the government could easily free up enough money to buy milk for all the little children.

In the end the controversy was ended when Coca Cola generously offered to take over the free milk scheme, renaming it the “carbs for life scheme.”