Seanad debates

Wednesday, 29 March 2006

Adjournment Matters.

School Meals Programme.

7:00 am

Photo of Joanna TuffyJoanna Tuffy (Labour)
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The matter I raise is self-explanatory and I will not add much except to say that I support the call for the extension of the school meals programme to more schools and pupils and for more funding for the programme. There should also be particular emphasis on healthy eating for the children involved. I look forward to hearing the Minister's response.

Michael Brennan (Progressive Democrats)
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I thank Senator Tuffy for raising this issue and appreciate her sincere approach to the matter.

The school meals programme operated by the Department provides funding towards provision of food services for disadvantaged school children through two schemes. The first is the long-standing statutory urban school meals scheme which is currently operated by 36 local authorities. The Department jointly funds the food costs on a 50-50 basis with the local authorities who also manage and fund the administration of the scheme.

The urban scheme is confined to primary schoolchildren and the decision on eligibility of individual children and schools rests with the local authorities, subject to the Department's approval. A total of 386 primary schools have benefited under the urban school meals scheme for the calendar year 2005, of which ten were in the Dublin mid-west region, all in Clondalkin. It is not possible to determine how many pupils benefited from the scheme in this region as the Department does not have that information to hand from the south Dublin local authority.

The second programme is the school meals community and local projects programme. Unlike the urban scheme, this scheme is non-statutory and provides funding directly to national schools, secondary schools, local groups and voluntary organisations which operate their own meals projects. Projects must be targeted at areas of disadvantage or at children with special needs. Funding under this scheme is for food only, which must be of suitable quality and nutritional value and be prepared and consumed in an appropriate environment. This scheme came into operation in September 2000 and has since been expanded to include preschools that are community based and which operate on a not-for-profit basis. The amount of funding allocated to a project depends on the type and number of meals provided. The current rates of funding for the various meal types are as follows: breakfast, €0.60; light meals, €1.40; and dinner, €1.90.

In the current academic year, 2005-2006, a total of 24 schools in co-operation with 12 organisations are involved in running food clubs in the Dublin mid-west region, benefiting 2,469 children through breakfast, lunch and homework clubs. I will arrange for a tabular statement to be provided to the Senator on the organisations providing these food clubs. I do not have information on the overall number of schools in the Dublin mid-west area so I cannot provide details on the percentage of schools and pupils benefiting from the school meals scheme.

There is ongoing liaison between my Department and the Department of Education and Science on school meals issues. In 2005 the Department of Education and Science initiated a new action plan, Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, which incorporates many of the Department's existing schemes which target educational disadvantage. A list of schools identified for inclusion in its school support programme is being updated and will be available shortly. The Department will use this list to ensure that disadvantaged schools are prioritised for inclusion in the school meals programme.

The school meals programme makes an important contribution to ensuring that school children receive better nutrition and contributes to improved school attendance and quality of learning. The scheme also supports initiatives that target dispersed disadvantage and children with special needs.