Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to discuss this issue. The school meals programme is of vital importance to the students that benefit from it. The Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, will be aware that the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, announced a €32 million investment and expansion of DEIS schools this year, which brings another 60,000 students into that support and benefits 310 schools. I welcome that. It is good that the Government recognises that there are students, schools, teachers and parents that need extra support. My concern is that it does not appear that the supply of school meals has been included in the budget for this year to support the 310 extra schools. It may well be the case that when the budget is passed in October those measures will be introduced, but it means that there will be a gap for the new DEIS schools from September up to that point. That is my understanding of the position. I hope measures will be put in place to increase the budget to allow for that.

School meals are provided under the Department of Social Protection's budget, whereas DEIS schools are funded under the Department of Education's budget. I wonder about the wisdom of that. It would probably make more sense to bring those together and have the entire DEIS programme, including school meals, supported by the Department of Education.

The school meals programme is of vital importance to children. Visiting schools over the past two years or so to discuss the environment, climate issues and projects and work the schools are doing, I have met students of all ages. On some of my visits, hot meals have arrived. Apart from the nutritional benefit and the benefit to students in their studies of getting a hot meal during the day, it is also a social occasion for the children. It is great to see. We know what the benefits are when children get nutrition during the school day. It helps them with their education and improves their attention.

Many children go to school hungry and live in poverty and deprivation. The provision of school meals is a very small intervention by the Government to assist those children. I worked out that the budget for the school meals programme probably amounts to about €1 per day per student.

We also have the hot meals programme, which caters for 280 schools and approximately 54,000 students. I want to ensure we put in place a budget that enables the new DEIS schools to avail of the school meals programme from September onwards and that we finalise that in the upcoming budget.

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