Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I do not have the figure here but I will get back to the Deputy. As a consequence of the changes, a two-adult household with an income of €69,000 will retain the maximum carer's allowance. The same carer with an income of €97,000 will retain a partial payment. In June 2022, before we started making changes, that €69,000 was €37,000 and that €97,000 was €60,000. There has been a big change and we are going to continue with big changes like that. Since the start of 2022, the number of carers on carer's allowance has increased by approximately 8,000. The figure is now over 101,000. I will come back to the Deputy on that other figure.

On school meals, we have written to every primary school in the country asking them to get involved and to take this scheme on board. The allocation for 2025 is €300 million. The majority of schools that were approved for the programme decided not to begin until September. That will have an impact on the spend. There are now 3,200 schools eligible for the school meals. We are working with schools right across the country to get them on board. We are enquiring why some are not on board. The number who have not engaged with us at this stage is now down in the hundreds. We are also making changes on the nutrition side. From within this Estimate, we are funding a dietitian in the Department of Health to work with the cross-government committee on school meals to make sure they are as nutritious as possible. In that context, we will be looking at Deputy O'Reilly's proposal regarding local providers such as meals and wheels and so on to make sure as much of this investment as possible is spent in local communities. We are engaging with any school that is not coming on board for whatever reason. We are giving such schools every chance to get on board. I will also highlight that, working with the Department of Education, we are looking at a school meals holiday hunger pilot programme for this year. We have had more than 900 applications for that.

Holiday programmes and school programmes will assist some 68,000 children with complex special educational needs. We are investing approximately €1.3 million in that this year. I am very keen to expand it in future years.