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

I understand the point the Deputy makes and the level of interest for the school meals programme is a clear sign of the need for its expansion. It is something the Minister for Social Protection is prioritising. The issues being highlighted today are being prioritised by the Minister. As part of the measures announced by the Government last week, access to the hot school meals is being extended to the remaining 372 DEIS primary schools and all special schools from September. I stress that. There are not as many special schools throughout the country but those are children who have most severe and profound difficulties and, up to now, all schools were not included. A key priority is that this will happen and be in place this September, in addition to the DEIS schools.

It will result in the number of schools that have access to the hot meals scheme increasing from 37 to more than 900, during the term of this Government. The Minister for Social Protection will also bring forward a proposal for the roll-out of the hot school meals programme to non-DEIS primary schools and significant additional funding has been provided for the programme. The total budget following this extension of the programme now stands at €108.9 million for 2022. This represents a 76% increase in funding only since 2020. In this regard, the evaluation of the school meals programme that the Minister commissioned last year will inform future policy decisions of the school programme. The final report was received recently and is currently being reviewed. Consequently, I am not in a position to give any further details.

However, it will be published - that is very important - in the coming weeks and it will finally acknowledge the issue the Deputy mentioned with the system of accounting for the schools meals system. That is, of course, an extra burden and perhaps there can be more liaison with the contractors who regularly provide these directly to the school in a way. Perhaps they can work closer together to simplify the system. However, I understand there is an additional burden from an administrative point of view. The issue of food inflation is obviously something that will have to be taken account of in the budget, coming up next September or October, for the next school year.

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