Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 120: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the details of his plans to make significant improvements to the back to school clothing and footwear allowance and the school meals programme; and the dates on which these improvements will be made. [20698/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The back to school clothing and footwear allowance (BSCFA) scheme provides a one-off payment to eligible families to assist with the extra costs when their children start school each autumn. The allowance is not intended to meet the full cost of school clothing and footwear but only to provide assistance towards these costs. A person may qualify for payment of an allowance if they are in receipt of a social welfare payment, or Health Service Executive payment, are participating in an approved employment scheme or attending a recognised education and training course and have household income at or below certain set levels. Family Income Supplement is one of the Qualifying payments. Separately, the Department of Education and Science operate a book grant scheme for primary and secondary schools.

The rates of BSCFA have been increased significantly in recent years. From June 2006, the allowance was increased by €40 to €120 in respect of qualified children aged from 2 to 11 years and €190 for those aged from 12 to 22 years. In Budget 2007 , the rate of payment of BSCFA was increased by a further €60 per child for children aged 2 to 11 years old and increased by a further €95 for children aged 12 to 22 — a 50% increase on the previous allowance.

The new rates for 2007 are €180 for children aged 2 to 11 years old and €285 for children aged 12 to 22. Budget 2007 also increased the income limits for BSCFA by €50 to €100 above the state pension (contributory) rate. These improvements provide a considerable boost to families at a time of considerable expense. The annual expenditure on the scheme will increase to €38.1m as a result of these measures.

These improvements in BSCFA are very significant when viewed in the context of clothing and footwear price trends. According to the Consumer Price Index for August 2007, the overall cost of clothing and footwear has fallen by 3.4% over the past twelve months. Since December 2001, clothing and footwear costs have decreased by 21.6%.

I consider the back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme to be an important support for parents at a time of particular financial strain. While the improvements to the scheme in recent years provide a major boost to meeting the financial costs associated with return to school for those who most need assistance, further improvements to the scheme will be considered in the context of the Budget and in the light of resources available to me for improvements in social welfare payments generally.

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 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 who are running specific school meals projects, including breakfast clubs.

The school meals programme has expanded significantly in recent years to include a large number of disadvantaged school children and this trend will continue throughout 2007 and in future years. The number of meals being provided on a daily basis to disadvantaged children through the school meals local projects scheme has doubled from 89,915 in the school year 2005/2006 to 179,660 in the school year 2006/2007. In 2006, some 1,394 schools with over 145,000 pupils benefited under the scheme and this is expected to increases to 165,000 plus pupils in over 1,800 schools in the 2007/2008 school year.

The Department of Education and Science has identified a total of 875 disadvantaged schools under the recent 'Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools' (DEIS) action plan. To date, a total of 651 DEIS schools are participating on the scheme, and additional applications are expected.

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. All relevant research indicates that there is a strong link between nutritional intake and cognitive ability and that inadequate nutrition impacts negatively on a child's ability to learn and benefit from education. I am satisfied that the additional funding given to the school meals programme in recent years ha s enabled the programme to expand significantly and to assist schools and projects to provide healthy, nutritious food to the most disadvantaged children in our society who, by reason of lack of food, are unable to take full advantage of the educational opportunities presented to them. I will be seeking to make provision in Budget 2008 for further expansion of the school meals scheme, to increase the number of children benefiting.