Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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174. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection if she will provide, in tabular form the budget and cost of the school meals programme in Counties Laois, Kildare and Offaly; the number of schools involved; the number of children in each of these schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36337/15]

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food services to some 1,700 schools and organisations which benefits over 217,500 children. Government has allocated an additional €3 million for the programme in the recent Budget, providing a total allocation of €42 million for 2016. The provision for the scheme was also increased by €2 million in Budgets 2013 and 2015.

The programme is in place to provide support to disadvantaged children and priority is given to schools which are part of the Department of Education and Skills’ initiative for disadvantaged schools, ‘Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools’ (DEIS). The additional funding provided is being used to increase payments to existing DEIS schools with a particular focus on the provision of funding for breakfast clubs which provide very positive outcomes for vulnerable children in terms of their school attendance, punctuality and energy levels.

A total of 48 participating organisations in counties Laois, Kildare and Offaly were approved for funding for the 2014/15 academic year covering 57 schools and pre-schools, totalling some €1.3m. The breakdown for each of these counties is provided in the following tabular statement. The number of children benefitting in each of these organisations for the 2014/15 academic year is also provided. The Department is at present processing applications for the current school year.

School Meals funding for the 2014/2015 academic year in Kildare/Laois/Offaly: