Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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256. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the cost of the school meals scheme in 2014; the projected cost of the scheme in 2015; the number of schools this scheme will be available in and the cost of rolling out/extending the scheme to an additional 500/600/700/800 schools respectively. [30241/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food services to some 1,600 schools and organisations which benefits some 205,000 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 to participating schools and local and voluntary community groups who run their own school meals projects. The Government has provided €37 million for the scheme in 2014.

Despite pressure on the social protection budget, the Government allocated an additional €2 million for the school meals programme in 2013, increasing the total allocation from €35 million to €37 million. The additional €2 million was used to extend the school meals local projects scheme to some 100 additional DEIS and special schools benefiting over 9,700 children.

The school meals scheme is in place to provide support to disadvantaged children and priority is given to schools to schools which are part of the Department of Education and Skills’ initiative for disadvantaged schools, ‘Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools’ (DEIS). Analysis undertaken with the Department of Education and Skills shows that there are currently 850 DEIS schools of which some 715 are participating in the school meals programme. Applications from DEIS schools not currently participating in the scheme will continue to be accepted into the scheme for the forthcoming academic year.

Budget 2014 announced the provision of breakfast clubs to support school going children in disadvantaged areas. Correspondence has issued to 12 DEIS schools currently participating in the scheme which have applied for funding towards a breakfast club for the forthcoming academic year.

The cost of extending the scheme to additional schools can only be quantified where more specific information is available such as the number of pupils and the type of food clubs provided. Details of the various food clubs available under the scheme and the maximum daily rate per pupil is provided in the attached tabular statement.

The financial provision for the scheme in 2015 could only be considered in a budgetary context.

School Meals Food Clubs