Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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846. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the amount of funding provided for the school meals programme for the 2020-2021 academic year. [30540/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,506 schools and organisations benefitting 230,000 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.

A budget of €65.1 million has been provided for the scheme in 2021.

The Programme provides funding towards food services for disadvantaged school children through two schemes - the urban school meals scheme and the school meals (local projects) scheme. The Urban School Meals Scheme for primary schools is operated and administered by local authorities and is part-financed by my Department. Expenditure on the Urban Scheme in the financial year ended 2020 was €0.5m.

The school meals (local projects) scheme provides funding towards the provision of food to schools and organisations. The total funds allocated to schools and organisations through the school meals (local projects) scheme for the 2020/2021 academic year to date is €61.4m.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.