Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I take what the Minister has said. She has worked hard and done an excellent job even as we approach an election. I hope that we will see her back here and that when the next Government is formed we would move rapidly towards identifying schools. I am aware of a school in Galway that I will not name but I may come back to the Minister about it. The school is surrounded by a fairly well-to-do area but a huge number of Traveller children attend the school. It would qualify on every level for DEIS status but for some reason such status has been impeded.

I would prefer if the Department of Social Protection, rather than funding the school meals programme, gave a grant to the Department of Education and Skills. Such an initiative would allow the Minister or her successor to utilise the money in the best way possible rather than having a cross-departmental thing. I can understand how the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Department of Health might have to work with the Department of Education and Skills. The funding from the Department of Social Protection should be ring-fenced and handed to the Minister for Education and Skills thus allowing her to deal with the entire programme of meals and education, which is something similar to what happens in the UK.