James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I again thank the Deputy for raising the important matter of the hot school meals programme in Ennistymon Community School in County Clare. The school meals programme is a very important component of policies to provide regular nutritious food to children to help them to improve their daily diet, to encourage school attendance and to encourage extra educational achievement by children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The level of interest in the school meals programme is a clear sign of the need for its expansion. The Minister is committed to continuing to grow the school meals programme and, in particular, the hot school meals element, building further on the significant extensions announced in last year's budget. In fairness, it has to be recognised across the House that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has done significant work to expand the school meals programme in recent years.

In relation to Ennistymon itself, the position is essentially that three schools amalgamated. One of these was a DEIS school and so the pupils were already in receipt of school meals, but the other two schools were not DEIS schools and so were not in receipt of school meals. The school is now classified by the Department of Education as a non-DEIS school, but the positive news is that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has taken a proactive approach here and has instructed her officials to continue funding for school meals for all students at the school until the end of the school year. This will allow time for the officials from the Departments of Social Protection and Education to engage with the principal and the board of management of Ennistymon Community School on these matters. I again thank the Deputy for raising this matter.

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