Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this Topical Issue. I also acknowledge that Deputy Noel Rock has been in discussions with me on this issue for more than a month.

To give the Deputy some background, my Department is providing funding for school meals in more than 1,580 schools and other organisations. The programme, which supports more than 248,000 children, will cost approximately €54 million in 2018, which is an increase of €6.5 million over the previous year. It is important to make that point because it makes a valuable contribution and its effect on the lives of the children who avail of the programme is, as Deputy Ellis described, tangible. It is not something fuzzy or woolly. The objective of the scheme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children who are unable, perhaps due to lack of good quality food, to take full advantage of the education being provided to them.

In recent years, priority for new applications for funding has been given to schools that are part of the Department of Education and Skills initiative for disadvantaged schools, Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, in line with the national policy framework for children and young people, Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures. The schools in Ballymun, which are affected by the proposed closure of the breakfast club, all have DEIS status and receive funding from my Department under the school meals programme. That will not change. The breakfast clubs in Ballymun, which Deputy Ellis described as "early bird clubs", are operated by the Ballymun educational support team school completion programme, BEST SCP, and have been part of the Ballymun local drugs and alcohol task force funding provision through Department of Health funding for the past 18 years. The channel of funding is the City of Dublin Youth Service Board and City of Dublin Education and Training Board.

According to the Ballymun local drugs and alcohol task force, the allocation for the 2017 school calendar year was €122,716, and €87,716 to the end of June 2018. The funding provided is used for food, staffing to prepare the food and supervise the breakfast clubs in seven schools during school term, insurance, training, etc., and has been administered centrally by BEST SCP. The rationale for the Ballymun local drugs and alcohol task force funding these clubs was to support school retention and participation, especially for those families struggling to provide basic supports for their children in the mornings. In an effort to maximise its funding and to focus more sharply on individuals, children and families with the most acute needs or at most acute risk due to drugs and alcohol issues, the task force in its allocation for 2018 only approved funding until the end of June and wrote to BEST SCP and local school principals to advise of this.

The task force also allocated additional resources to engage an independent contractor to work with each school to provide support to make the necessary applications and arrangements to ensure breakfasts continued in their schools through the school meals programme, and that they were embedded directly in each school going forward. The contractor has met the Ballymun principals' network and has been in touch with each school to assist in assessing how the breakfast clubs could be provided by the respective schools in future.

The school meals programme has a particular focus on the provision of breakfast clubs because they provide positive outcomes for vulnerable children in terms of their energy levels, punctuality and school attendance. The scheme provides funding for either a breakfast or a snack for all children and lunch for up to 90% of children in DEIS schools for the entire school year from September to June. At present, all of the schools affected are funded for all children for a snack club and a lunch club. If individual schools wish to receive funding for a breakfast club, they will lose their funding for snack clubs and obviously children would get breakfast instead of a snack.

My Department provides funding for food costs to a number of school completion programmes, SCPs, throughout the country. The SCP co-ordinator, who is generally based in one of the larger schools in an area, submits an application on behalf of the schools under its remit. The co-ordinator distributes the funding to the constituent schools and the schools operate the clubs. Occasionally, the SCP will operate the club in one school drawing in the pupils from the other schools under its remit.

My Department has not received any application from BEST SCP to participate in the school meals programme to date. If an application is received, it will be considered favourably. A new round of school meal programmes to be announced next week, for which BEST SCP can certainly apply.

A meeting scheduled for today did not take place. I can only encourage Deputy Ellis, if he has any influence, to ensure this meeting takes place and an application is made.

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