Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. In recent years, entry to the school meals programme had been confined to DEIS schools in addition to schools identified by the Department of Education as having levels of concentrated disadvantage that would benefit from access to the programme.

In budget 2022, I provided funding for all DEIS schools currently in the programme. In July 2022, I announced that I was extending hot school meals to the new DEIS schools announced by the Department of Education. This provided access to hot school meals to a further 282 primary schools and a cold lunch to 38 secondary schools benefitting 61,405 children.

In 2023, the Government approved an additional €14.5 million to allow access to the hot school meals scheme for all remaining DEIS schools from September 2023 bringing the total budget to €108.9 million.

All remaining primary schools were contacted last year and requested to submit an expression of interest form if their school was interested in commencing the provision of hot school meals. Expressions of interests were received from more than 900 primary schools in respect of 150,000 children who were then invited to participate in the programme from 8 April 2024, and all of the schools that submitted completed applications have been awarded funding.

My Department has now contacted the remaining primary schools that have not yet joined the hot school meals scheme asking them to submit expressions of interest if their school is interested in commencing the provision of hot school meals, subject to available approved budgetary funding. I assure the Deputy that I am committed to continuing to expand the school meals programme and to building further on the significant extension of the programme that has taken place in recent years.

See this speech in context