Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 18: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the take-up rate of the school meals programme operated by his Department; and if he intends to offer more incentives to increase take-up levels. [4686/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

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

The second is the school meals community, local projects, programme through which funding is provided by my Department to participating schools and voluntary community groups in both urban and rural areas for school meals projects. This also covers pre-schools that are community based and which operate on a not-for-profit basis.

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.

Under its programme of expenditure reviews, my Department completed a review of the school meals scheme in 2003. The review group recommended that a new scheme called the school food programme, SFP, should be established, targeting secondary schools with the highest concentrations of pupils at risk of early school leaving and their feeder primary schools. Given the scale of this initiative, the group recommended that the new programme should be phased in, in conjunction with the school meals project, targeting the most disadvantaged areas initially.

In order to advance recommendations made in the review of the school meals scheme, my Department assigned an officer on in the Donegal area to pilot additional ways of encouraging disadvantaged schools and groups to participate in the scheme. All the schools approached were on either the school completion programme or Give Children an Even Break programme. This project has resulted in a total of 17 new schools becoming involved in the school meals local project scheme in Donegal. This pilot project has been extended into the Sligo and Leitrim areas in 2006. Options for extending this project into other areas are being actively examined.

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

In 2003, €3.29 million was spent on the school meals programme. A total of 382 schools, with a total of over 50,650 pupils benefited from the urban scheme while 347 schools and voluntary organisations received funding which benefited some 26,000 children under local school meals projects.

In 2004, expenditure on the school meals programme was €4.65 million in total. A total of 386 schools, with a total of over 50,817 pupils benefited from the urban scheme while 451 schools and voluntary organisations received funding which benefited some 41,300 children under local school meals projects.

In 2005, expenditure increased to €8.24 million in total €7.08 million for the school projects and €1.16 million for the urban school meals scheme. A total of 386 schools, with an estimated total of over 54,752 pupils benefited from the urban scheme while 596 schools and voluntary organisations received funding which benefited some 62,671 children under local school meals projects.

A total of €10.4 million has been allocated for the school meals programme in 2006 —€9.1 million for school projects and €1.3 million for the urban scheme. I would expect to see expenditure on school meals increase over future years as the school meals programme is further extended. All matters relating to the scheme, including the possibility of incentives to promote the scheme, will be kept under review.