Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael)
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104. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the schools that will benefit from the budget 2018 measure to increase school meals funding to include newly designated DEIS schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8401/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Funding towards school meals is being provided in over 1,550 schools and other organisations, supporting up to 247,000 children at a cost of some €54 million in 2018, representing an increase of €6.5 million over the previous year. The Department was a member of the Inter-Departmental Advisory Group for the Review of the DEIS Programme undertaken by the Department of Education and Skills, following which DEIS Plan 2017was published in February 2017. The Plan sets out targets and actions aimed at improving the educational outcome for pupils at greatest risk of not reaching their full potential by virtue of their socio-economic circumstances.Some 240 additional schools, including DEIS and non-DEIS schools, were identified to receive support under the school meals scheme from September 2017 in consultation with the Department of Education and Skills, which has developed a more robust and responsive framework for assessing individual schools levels of concentrated disadvantage as part of this process.

This ensures that the scheme continues to target those children most in need of this support.

In terms of selecting additional schools from September 2018, these schools will be identified by my Department in conjunction with the Department of Education and Skills and will be contacted over the coming weeks.