Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Many parents and staff from Ennistymon Community School have been in touch with my office regarding the withdrawal of funding for school meals as a result of the amalgamation of three schools. Of the three, only the former vocational school had DEIS status and, as a consequence, school meals in place. The school meals were to be temporarily extended to all pupils until the DEIS issue was ironed out but the service has been gone since the Hallowe'en mid-term break. I met the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, the other day. I also contacted the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, who issued a letter yesterday evening that clarifies that she will continue with the free school meals all the way up to the end of the school year. This is really welcome but officials from the Department of Social Protection, along with officials from the Department of Education, now need to engage with the school. We have circumstances in which one school had DEIS status while the other two did not. Where there is an amalgamation, surely there should be a little common sense. The altruistic policy of the Government to extend free school meals to all primary schools could surely be tweaked to allow for anomalies such as this one to be dealt with.

See this speech in context