Dáil debates
Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate
School Meals Programme
9:10 am
Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, outlined to me yesterday evening that she would not be in a position to take this question here this morning. Nonetheless, I am very grateful to the Minister for her engagement on the matter and for ensuring that the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, is present in order for the question to be taken today. It is vitally important for me, as a public representative, to highlight this matter today. It is of huge importance to my constituents in north Clare and it involves more than 700 students. On Friday last I received an influx of emails, predominantly from parents but also from others in the school community, who have been impacted by this issue. The emails informed me that in September this year the new Ennistymon Community School opened in north Clare - not in a new building - as an amalgamation of three schools: the former Scoil Mhuire, Meánscoil na mBráithre CBS, and Ennistymon Vocational School. The new school operates across the three buildings of the former schools and will continue to do so until quarter 1 of 2024 due to building delays.
Students from the three former schools are mixed across the three sites. Ennistymon Vocational School was a DEIS school and the principal of the new Ennistymon Community School has told me they were advised the new school would hold that DEIS status for six years. There is quite a bit of confusion at play here. In June 2023 the school completion project, SCP, co-ordinator, was verbally assured by the social inclusion section of the Department that the new Ennistymon Community School would receive full school meals funding from 1 September. The SCP co-ordinator was told that a note was placed in the file and a letter would issue in August to confirm same. It was outlined to the principal that it is common practice for letters to issue from the Department at the end of August. However, confirmation from the social inclusion unit in relation to the Ennistymon school meals budget was not in any way confirmed. At the end of October it was outlined that the school meals would only be provided based on the numbers previously held by the vocational school, which is approximately of one third of the new school. I do not believe it is workable that some students in a new amalgamation setting would receive hot meals and others would not. I am unsure how this was an option and why that would be the case.
On foot of the verbal assurance given that all students would get the full school meals provision in June, the School Food Company hired two additional staff and purchased a van to transport food to all three campuses. The Ennis school completion project and the school provided a full school meals provision across all three campuses. The school found itself in an impossible situation when the newly sanctioned school meals budget was withdrawn abruptly. The School Food Company has been forced to let three staff go without any notice, just a few weeks before Christmas. One of the staff got in touch at the weekend to make the point that not only has a fantastic service been taken away from the school, but jobs have been taken as well. Those who were in a job that they loved since day one are now left without a wage with Christmas coming up. They are angry and upset because they have no money coming in to pay all their bills.
This school has students mixed across all three sites due to the building delay. They will be forced to pick and choose from each year group as to who qualifies for a subsidised lunch over others. One can imagine that this would cause great difficulty. As of now, all students have benefited from this service since 1 September. The sudden withdrawal has caused massive distress and upset to these students and their families. I was incredibly pleased to be informed yesterday evening by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, that in light of the circumstances an exception has been made and that school meals will continue to be funded for all children going forward. This was the correct action to take and will go some way to alleviate the stress that has unfolded in the past week for everyone involved.
James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the very important issue of the hot school meals programme in Ennistymon Community School in County Clare. The school meals programme funds the provision of food to some 1,700 schools and organisations, benefiting some 300,000 children. The objective of the programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to enable them to take full advantage of the education provided to them. Funding under the school meals programme can be provided for breakfasts, snacks, cold lunches, dinners, hot school meals and after-school clubs, and is based on a maximum rate per child per day, depending on the type of meal being provided.
The hot school meal option of the programme was introduced in 2019 and is currently only available in primary schools. Ennistymon Vocational School, which was a DEIS secondary school, amalgamated with two non-DEIS secondary schools - Meánscoil na mBráithre and Scoil Mhuire - to form Ennistymon Community School at the end of August 2023. The new amalgamated school was designated with non-DEIS status by the Department of Education. In line with Department of Education policy, the pupils from the former DEIS school hold the DEIS supports, including school meals funding, for a period of six years until the pupils from the former DEIS school have transitioned out of the school. In other words, the students who had been in the DEIS school before the amalgamation can retain their entitlement to school meals until they have completed secondary school.
It is important to say that Meánscoil na mBráithre and Scoil Mhuire had not been in the school meals programme prior to the amalgamation. In light of the circumstances that have arisen at this school, which is in no way the fault of the pupils, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has instructed her officials to continue funding for school meals for all students until the end of the school year. This will allow time for 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 very important matters.
Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate all the information outlined in his response. The ideal outcome is that the school gets the hot meals programme reinstated as a matter of urgency because its withdrawal has caused considerable distress for the pupils and staff. The situation arising in the first instance indicates that there is a wider picture issue here around the amalgamation supports the school is receiving from the Department. I believe that Ennistymon Community School should qualify for full DEIS status in its own right. The principal has told me that the school has an exceptionally high level of need, with more than 100 students who are under the protection of the State, and yet has not got near the provision of DEIS that is required to meet the needs of the Ennistymon Community School community. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, to speak with his colleague, the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley - as I will - to urgently review the DEIS status of this school which, due to building delays, is spread across the town on three different campuses.
The school community has enough issues to contend with, especially as the harsh weather picks up and as they move from building to building. I find it incredibly difficult even to find the phone number of this new school in its new form and that is massively concerning.
I must remind the Government that we are in the grips of a cost-of-living crisis that is not going away anytime soon. There are food banks being operated by the fantastic family resource centres across my constituency, but they simply cannot keep up with the demand. The vast majority of families in Clare are barely keeping their heads above water. We cannot turn our backs on our vulnerable children. I sincerely hope the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, and I can work together to ensure that going forward these students and this school community have as much support as possible as they navigate this tricky journey to full amalgamation.
9:20 am
James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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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.