Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 86: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of schools on the DEIS list; the estimated number of school children in these schools that are not currently receiving funding under a school meals programme; the steps she is taking to encourage applications to identify the reason some schools have not applied; and her findings in this regard. [21511/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The school meals programme 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, which is operated by local authorities and part-financed by the Department. The second is the school meals local projects scheme through which funding is provided by the Department to participating schools and voluntary community groups in both urban and rural areas, who are running specific school meals projects.

The Department of Education and Science has indicated that there are currently approximately 153,000 pupils enrolled in 873 DEIS schools. Over 93,000 pupils from 700 DEIS schools are benefiting under the school meals local projects scheme. This includes a variety of different types of school food projects, including DEIS schools who receive funding directly from the Department for either their full school population or for targeted pupils and also school food projects funded by the Department and operated by local and voluntary organisations for pupils from DEIS schools.

In addition, over 30,000 pupils in DEIS schools benefit under the urban school meals scheme. Given the possibility that some pupils may benefit under both schemes, it is estimated that between 30,000-60,000 pupils in DEIS schools do not currently benefit from the school meals programme.

The decision to operate a school food project or to apply for funding under the school meals local projects scheme rests with the school itself. Funding under the scheme must be targeted at disadvantaged school children and is intended to assist schools or groups who are operating their own school food projects, with the food costs of the project only. Responsibility for all aspects of the day-to-day operation of the scheme lies with the school. Demand for funding under the school meals local projects scheme remains high and additional funding provided in 2008 will be used to include more DEIS schools in the scheme.