Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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211. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing the funding to the school meals programme by 40%; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12211/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food services to schools and organisations at a total cost of €42 million in 2016.

There are two schemes operated under the school meals programme. The first scheme 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. There were over 1,330 schools, preschools and other groups participating in the school meals local projects scheme in the academic year 2014/2015, benefitting approximately 155,000 children at a cost of €37.7 million in 2015. The second is the urban school meals scheme which is operated by local authorities in some 300 schools and part-financed by the Department, benefitting approximately 55,000 children at a cost of €1.1 million in 2015.

Based on the 2016 budgetary allocation of €42 million, the additional annual cost of expanding the school meals programme by 40% is €16.8 million, at a cost of approximately €6.5 million in the first year covering the new school term from September to December. Any changes to social welfare schemes can only be considered in a budgetary context.