Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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537. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the full year cost of doubling the school meal programme. [38644/13]

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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700. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the full year cost of doubling the school meal programme. [38674/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 537 and 700 together.

The school meals programme operated by the Department provides funding towards the provision of food services for disadvantaged children through two schemes. The first is the statutory urban school meals scheme, operated by local authorities and part-financed by this Department. The second is the school meals local projects scheme through which funding is provided directly to participating schools and local and voluntary community groups who run their own school meals projects. Expenditure on the school meals programme in 2012 was €35 million. The Government has provided an additional €2 million for the programme for 2013, increasing the allocation to €37 million.

The full year cost of doubling the cost of the school meals programme would amount to an additional €37 million.