Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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219. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the protocols that will be in place if, under the new nutrition standards as part of the school meals programme, a school exceeds the numbers of days in a week that it provides a food stuff or beverage that does not meet the standards; if funding will be stopped; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42108/17]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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220. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if recipe submission by schools is a requirement as part of the school meals programme funding; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42109/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 219 and 220 together.

The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to schools and organisations at a total cost of some €47.5 million in 2017. As part of Budget 2017, the funding for the scheme was substantially increased this year by an additional €5.5 million which will benefit over 50,000 additional children from September 2017 bringing the total number of schools in the scheme to some 1,700 and the number of children supported to up to 250,000.

The objective of the scheme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children who are unable, due to lack of good quality food, to take full advantage of the education provided to them. The recently published nutrition standards for school meals, under the auspices of Healthy Ireland, will be a valuable resource to enable and promote healthy eating and healthy lifestyles in schools. These standards will compliment and strengthen the support and controls already in place.

Schools and organisations must reapply for funding under the school meals scheme in advance of each school year and list the food items to be provided for each food club on their application. Detailed records must be submitted at the end of each school year. Expenditure on items that do not meet the standards will be deducted from the following year's funding allocation. In addition, the Department initiated an on-site inspection programme in 2012 in participating schools to ensure that the scheme rules are being adhered to. The inspection process is being rolled out across all schools and includes an assessment of the type of food provided.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.