Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

127. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of primary schools that provide school meals by county in tabular form. [42184/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

128. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of post-primary schools that provide school meals by county in tabular form. [42185/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

129. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of special schools that provide school meals by county in tabular form. [42186/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

130. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of alternative education settings including Youthreach and related schemes that provide school meals by county in tabular form. [42187/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

131. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of schools that provide school meals by county in tabular form. [42188/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

132. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the percentage of primary schools that provide school meals. [42189/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

133. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the percentage of post-primary schools that provide school meals. [42190/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

134. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the percentage of special schools that provide school meals. [42191/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

135. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the percentage of alternative education settings including Youthreach and related schemes that provide school meals. [42192/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 127 to 135, inclusive, together.

The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,557 schools and organisations benefitting 227,000 children. The objective of the programme 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.

In recent years entry to the school meals programme has been confined to DEIS schools in addition to schools identified by Department of Education and Skills as having levels of concentrated disadvantage that would benefit from access to the programme.

Prior to the introduction of DEIS in 2005, all schools and organisations that were part of one of a number of Department of Education and Skills’ initiatives for disadvantaged schools were eligible to participate in the programme, which included Breaking the Cycle, Giving Children an Even Break, the Disadvantaged Area Scheme, Home School Community Liaison and the School Completion Programme. These schools and organisations have continued to remain in the programme.

Participation in the scheme is entirely voluntary with the onus being on the individual eligible schools to make an application. Schools and organisations must reapply for funding in advance of each school year and are required to submit detailed records at the end of the school year. Funding is based on a rate of payment per meal, per child, per day.

The number of schools, primary schools, post-primary schools, special schools and alternative education settings that provide school meals by county in tabular form is in table 1 of the attached Tabular Statement.

The percentage of primary schools, post-primary schools, special schools and alternative education settings that provide school meals in tabular form is in table 2 of the attached Tabular Statement.

Table 1 – Number providing School Meals by County

Table 2 – Percentage providing School Meals

*The total number of these types of organisations is not held.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

136. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of primary schools that provide hot school meals by county in tabular form. [42193/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

137. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of post-primary schools that provide hot school meals by county in tabular form. [42194/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

138. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of special schools that provide hot school meals by county in tabular form. [42195/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

139. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of alternative education settings including Youthreach and related schemes that provide hot school meals by count, in tabular form. [42196/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

140. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of schools that provide hot school meals by county in tabular form. [42197/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

141. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the percentage of primary schools that provide hot school meals. [42198/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

142. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the percentage of post-primary schools that provide hot school meals. [42199/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

143. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the percentage of special schools that provide hot school meals. [42200/20]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

144. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the percentage of alternative education settings including Youthreach and related schemes that provide hot meals. [42201/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 136 to 144, inclusive, together.

The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,557 schools and organisations benefitting 227,000 children.  The objective of the programme 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.

Funding is based on a rate of payment per meal, per child, per day.  Up until 2019, a hot meal was only provided through a dinner club which was primarily offered in schools with onsite cooking facilities.

As part of Budget 2019, funding was provided for a pilot scheme from September 2019, providing hot school meals in primary schools at a cost of €1m for 2019 and €2.5m in 2020.  The pilot involved 37 schools benefitting 6,744 students for the 2019/2020 academic year and was aimed primarily at schools with no onsite cooking facilities. 

Budget 2020 provided an additional €4 million in funding to extend the hot meals for children currently receiving the cold lunch option, which would allow my department to extend the hot meals to an additional 35,000 children.  A decision was made to delay the extension of the hot meals to January 2021 because of the closure of schools due to the Covid-19 Pandemic from 13 March 2020.  In budget 2021, I have provided an additional €5.5m for this extension from January 2021 to 35,000 primary school children currently receiving the cold lunch option.  Officials from my department are currently engaging with schools in relation to this measure.

A breakdown of the number of primary schools, post-primary schools, special schools, alternative education settings and schools by county is contained in table 1 in the attached tabular statement. These figures include schools that provided a dinner club and those that operated the Hot Meals Pilot in 2019/2020.

A breakdown of the percentage of primary schools, post-primary schools, special schools, and alternative education settings is contained in table 2 in the attached tabular statement. These figures include schools that provided a dinner club and those that operated the hot school meals pilot in 2019/2020.

Table 1 – Number providing Hot Dinners and Hot School Meals

Table 2 – Percentage providing Hot Dinner or Hot School Meal

*The total number of these types of organisations is not held.