Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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536. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the allocation for the school meals programme. [31359/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,580 schools and organisations benefitting 250,000 children at a total cost of €54 million in 2018 representing an increase of €6.5 million over the previous year. €1.7m of the additional funding will go towards including additional schools in the scheme and supporting some 16,000 additional children. The remainder of the increase is to cover the full year cost of new measures introduced in 2017.

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 programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement.