Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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222. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason schools are paying the extra cost of receiving milk in a 330 ml carton instead of in a 250 ml carton as entitled under the school milk scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38006/14]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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223. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason schools cannot avail of a low-fat milk option under the school milk scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38007/14]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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224. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason only 84 of over 700 post-primary schools took part in the school milk scheme last year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38008/14]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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225. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps she will taken to improve the application process for the school milk scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38009/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 222 to 225, inclusive, together.

The School Milk Scheme was introduced in 1977, and over 20 million EU children benefited from it in 2011/2012, an 18% jump compared with 2010/2011. The SMS has operated in Ireland since 1982 with the objective of promoting and encouraging the consumption of milk among school children. Its management is primarily through the National Dairy Council (NDC) in conjunction with the co-ops, but take-up is quite limited on a geographical level.

The Scheme provides for the payment of aid for milk products to school pupils and is co-financed by the EU and the MS, with DAFM the responsible Department in Ireland. The aid rates were reduced by approximately 7% per annum from 2004 to 2007 in line with the general reductions in support prices brought about by the 2003 Mid Term Review of the CAP. However, the Exchequer has made up for this reduction in the EU contribution, and the overall aid rates have been maintained at €27.89/100kg. Since 2007 the EU contribution is €18.15/100kg, with the balance of €9.74/100kg made up by the Exchequer.

In School year 2012-2013, approximately €677,000 was spent on the scheme for the provision of milk to nursery, preschool, special schools, secondary and primary school pupils. The cost to the EU was €440,572 and the National Top up was €236,428.

Each pupil is entitled to 250 ml of milk or milk equivalent per day at an average charge of €0.20 per 250ml. Milk is sold to schools at a subsidised rate and dairies claim the subsidy back from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The cost of the milk on average, as indicated above, is approximately €1- €1.25 per week per child, which equates to approximately €40 per academic year.

For the School Year 1st August 2012 to 31st July 2013 almost 2.4 million litres of milk was supplied to schools around the country, the approximate number of children that benefited was 52,937. For the same school year, 1077 schools participated in the Scheme including 95 Montessori, 855 National, 84 Secondary and 43 Special Schools. In total there are 4014 schools registered on the Department of Education website of which 3152 are primary schools.

Regarding the size of the carton utilised all NDC member dairies deliver either a 189ml or 250ml carton/bottle of subsidised milk. Some dairies additionally provide a 330ml carton at the request of schools, (usually secondary). The maximum quantity eligible for aid and upon which a subsidy is provided is for up to 250ml per pupil per day.

In respect of issues relating to scheme uptake, unfortunately subscription to the School Milk Scheme is low in secondary schools. This can be attributed to a number of factors such as the perceived administrative burden of running the scheme and the fact that demand for milk will come directly from pupils rather than parents.

In terms of efforts to encourage further uptake, the National Dairy Council actively promotes and provides a support service for the subsidised School Milk Scheme through various initiatives. The NDC contacts every primary school in ROI each September by letter encouraging participation in School Milk and outlines the health and nutritional benefits provided by milk. The NDC provides a support service to schools that are interested in subscribing to the scheme by putting them in touch with dairies that can deliver to their school. The NDC supplies fridges free of charge to subscribed schools, thereby ensuring that milk is provided to children at the optimum temperature. In addition to this the NDC runs dairy education programmes at both primary and secondary level to promote awareness of the benefits of dairy.

Regarding the range of products available under the scheme, revisions to and further development of the School Milk Scheme are under negotiation at EU level. In these negotiations Ireland has sought to appropriately extend the range of products that would form the scheme basis. It is noteworthy that a number of milk categories, including skimmed and semi-skimmed milk are currently permitted under the scheme for the school year 2014/15 but demand has not been evident beyond the whole milk option. As such, full-fat milk is provided by all NDC dairies as that is where demand has been evident from schools and parents.

In respect of the application process, this is a straightforward process for interested schools via the NDC. Relevant information is available on the NDC website at the web address