James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Kyne for raising this very important matter of the rates paid to providers of school meals across the country under the school meals programme. The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,700 schools and organisations, benefiting 260,000 children. The objective of the programme is to provide regular nutritious food to children who are unable, due to lack of good-quality food, to take full advantage of the education provided to them. The programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement.

A budget of €65.1 million has been provided for the scheme this year, with an additional €9 million provided to allow access to all newly designated DEIS schools from September 2022. Funding under the school meals programme can be provided for breakfast, snacks, cold lunches, dinner, hot school meals and after-school clubs and is based on a maximum rate per child per day, depending on the type of meal provided.

As part of budget 2019, funding was provided for a pilot scheme from September 2019 providing hot school meals in primary schools. The pilot involved 37 schools benefiting 6,744 students for the 2019-20 academic year and was aimed at primary schools with no on-site cooking facilities. An independent review of the hot school meals pilot which was completed in July 2020 found that all stakeholders indicated that the pilot project had a positive impact on children's diet, behaviour, attentiveness and psychological well-being.

In budget 2021 the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, announced that an additional €5.5 million would be provided to extend the provision of hot school meals to an additional 35,000 primary school children currently receiving the cold lunch option.

Budget 2022 provided for the hot school meals to be extended from January 2022 to the 81 DEIS schools that submitted an expression of interest but were not selected in the extension to 35,000 children as referred to. Every DEIS school that submitted an expression of interest to be included in the hot school meals extension announced in budget 2021 is now receiving funding for hot school meals.

In March 2022, the Minister for Education announced an extension of the DEIS programme to an additional 322 schools from September 2022. In July the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, announced that access to the hot school meal option would be extended to the 282 newly designated DEIS primary schools and that access to the cold lunch option would be extended to the 38 newly designated DEIS secondary schools from September, benefiting some 60,000 children at an additional cost of €9 million this year. Additional funding for the programme has been provided for 2023, bringing the total to €91.6 million.

The Minister is committed to continuing to expanding the school meals programme and building further on the significant extension of the programme in recent years. In this regard, she commissioned the evaluation of the school meals programme to review all elements of the programme, including the funding rates currently being provided for the various meal options. The final report is due to be completed by the end of the year.

I thank the Senator for raising the matter as it is important that such issues are raised.