Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 365: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the steps he will take to ensure that an application for a school meals project scheme for the school year 2010/11, by a school (details supplied) in County Westmeath is successful; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26512/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The school meals programme gives funding towards the provision of food services for disadvantaged school children through two schemes. The first is the statutory urban school meals scheme, operated by local authorities and part-financed by the Department. The second is the school meals local projects scheme through which funding is provided directly by the Department to participating schools and local and voluntary community groups who are running their own school meals projects.

An application for funding under the school meals local projects scheme for the school year 2010/2011 was received from the school concerned in May 2010. The school was informed by letter on 2nd June 2010 that, due to the demand on the scheme, the application had not been successful but that it would be retained for inclusion in the scheme at a future date.

The budget allocation for the schools meals programme for 2010 is €35m the same allocation as in 2009. Demand for funding under the school meals local projects scheme has increased considerably in recent years and remains high. Priority for funding under the scheme is given to schools which are part of the Department of Education & Skills' initiative for disadvantaged schools 'Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools' (DEIS). However, there is no automatic entitlement to funding and all applications must be considered in light of the available finance for the scheme. As the school concerned is part of the DEIS initiative, it will be given priority for funding at a later date, should funding becoming available.