Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for providing details on Scoil Bhríde. To provide some background, the school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food services for some 1,600 schools and organisations. Almost 207,000 children benefit through two schemes, the first of which is the statutory urban school meals scheme operated by local authorities and part-financed by the Department. The second, the scheme to which the Deputy refers, is the school meals local projects scheme through which funding is provided directly for participating schools and local and voluntary community groups which run their own school meal projects.

The school meals programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra-educational achievement by children, especially those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. As the Deputy will agree, breakfast clubs encourage children to arrive at school on time. I am firmly of the view that funding the provision of food services in schools guarantees ongoing positive returns on a public investment in the health and educational performance of future generations.

In recognition of the benefits the scheme provides and despite severe pressure on the social protection budget, the Government allocated an additional €2 million for the school meals programme in 2013, providing a total allocation of €37 million. This amount was increased in budget 2015 by a further €2 million, bringing the total to €39 million for 2015. This additional funding will be used to increase payments to existing schools which are part of the Department of Education and Skill's initiative for disadvantaged schools, Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, or DEIS as it is also known. DEIS is the Department's main policy instrument to address educational disadvantage. There will be a particular focus on the provision of breakfast clubs which provide positive outcomes for vulnerable children in terms of their school attendance, punctuality and energy levels.

The school referred to by the Deputy, Scoil Bhríde, has been in receipt of funding under the scheme since 2007 and applied for a significant increase in both pupil numbers availing of the scheme and funding for the current academic year. An increase in the level of payments to this school will be considered as part of the overall allocation of the additional €2 million that will be available in 2015.

I was not aware of some of the facts outlined by the Deputy who may wish to meet me next week to discuss them in detail. I note the support provided for Scoil Bhríde originally was for approximately 70 children, whereas enrolments at the school stand at 797. An additional €2 million has been provided for the school meals programme in 2015. The Deputy has indicated that Scoil Bhríde is being discriminated against by virtue of entering the scheme earlier than other schools. I invite him to discuss with me any structural problem that arises with the scheme.

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