Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to meet the Minister of State to discuss this matter. I will provide him with the information I have received at that point.

The purpose of the school meals scheme is to help children to get to school. Many but by no means all of the children in Knockmay are from low income families and do not receive a breakfast. In some homes the children are not provided with dinner or tea either. We must look after the younger generation because children cannot learn if they are hungry. One must fill their tummies before one tries to fill their brains.

Scoil Bhríde receives funding to provide lunch for two children in each class of 30 pupils. This means that the principal or someone acting on the principal's behalf must choose the two children in each class who will benefit from the scheme. It is awful that we have been reduced to this. There are historical reasons for the discrepancy in funding.

The reason I have so much information on this issue is that, in addition to submitting parliamentary questions, I sent a detailed letter outlining the position to the Secretary General of the Department of Social Protection in August. I received a detailed reply, including some statistics, from an official in the Department's Sligo office. I was grateful to receive all of the information available in the Department on the issue, notwithstanding the fact that it does maintain information on funding broken down per pupil. I am fortunate to have this information and I am sure the Minister of State would be able to obtain it. I will provide him with copies of the documentation I have received.

The essential point is that there is a structural flaw in the system. The official indicated that if the funding provided for Scoil Bhríde were to be increased to the average figure, other schools in receipt of funding in excess of it could have their allocations cut. It would be difficult to give that news to the schools in question. Fairness and equity are necessary, however, and schools should receive funding close to the average, not ten times higher than the funding provided for other schools. Scoil Bhríde receives one tenth of the average payment and I am sure there are schools that receive payments far in excess of it possibly by ten times.

It should be noted that Scoil Bhríde is a DEIS 1 school and that many of the pupils come from families on low incomes. Let us try to feed these children in order that they can be educated a little better. I look forward to meeting the Minister of State next week to discuss the issue.

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