Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The objective of the school meals programme is to provide regular nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them. The programme is an important component of policy to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement. Following a significant expansion in recent years, some 2,600 schools, covering 443,000 children, are now eligible for funding for a range of meal options under the school meals programme. The hot school meals programme started in 2019, with a pilot scheme of 30 schools, and has now grown to include 2,000 schools. It is my ambition and that of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, that every child born today will have a hot school meal by the time they start primary school.

St. Anne's School in Ennis, County Clare, has received funding under the school meals programme since the 2016-17 school year and has been funded for hot school meals since the 2023-24 school year. The school is currently in receipt of funding of €82,000 for hot school meals in respect of 143 children, at the daily rate of €3.20 per child per day. Funding under this programme is solely for food and is made available on the basis of a set price per meal per child per day. It is not possible for the funding to be used to recruit a cook or for the school to negotiate other arrangements locally. All schools which wish to avail of funding are responsible for choosing their school meals supplier on the open market in a fair and transparent manner, in accordance with public procurement rules, and the primary relationship is between the school and supplier.

Responsibility for sourcing the meals is a matter for each school, but in order to secure funding they must first agree to apply the standards set out by signing a service level agreement which clearly sets out the school's responsibilities and obligations in terms of nutrition standards for school meals which were developed by a working group, led by the health and well-being programme in the Department of Health, in consultation with Safefood and the healthy eating and active living programme in the HSE.

It is each school's responsibility to source a supplier that can meet the dietary requirements of all their pupils. Each school is required to provide a menu choice of at least two different meals per day and, where required, provide a vegetarian or vegan option and an option that caters for students' religious and cultural dietary requirements and medical conditions. The food provided for those with allergies or conditions must comply with these standards. Guidance on allergies such as coeliac disease and gluten intolerance is available from Safefood.

The hot school meals programme is specifically designed to cater for the dietary needs of children and the Department provides funding directly to schools, which are then required to procure the provision of the food in compliance with public procurement rules, the relevant hazard analysis, critical control point food safety regulations and nutrition standards for school meals.

The Minister and I are keen to build on the great success of the scheme to date. Those primary schools that have not opted into the scheme have been contacted again and many are now coming on board. This is a very positive step and I hope we can continue to build on the scheme in the years ahead.

The question, as framed by the Deputy, just referred to St. Anne's special school. As a result, I do not have any additional information Ennistymon. I am aware that the Minister and the Department showed flexibility last year regarding the situation in Ennistymon. Without knowing more of the detail and background, all I can say is that I will take the Deputy's request directly to the Minister. I can follow up a bit more in my supplementary reply.

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