Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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456. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if school meals are included as part of a programme for a school (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25749/22]

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.

In recent years entry to the School Meals Scheme has been confined to DEIS schools in addition to schools identified as having levels of concentrated disadvantage that would benefit from access to the school meals programme.

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

These schools and organisations have continued to remain in the programme since the introduction of DEIS in 2005 but their level of funding has been capped at the same rate year on year to allow for the concentration of the scheme on DEIS schools.

Following the publication of the DEIS Plan 2017, by the Department of Education and Skills, the school referred to by the Deputy was identified as having levels of concentrated disadvantage that would benefit from access to the school meals programme. They were invited to participate in the programme for a breakfast club and have since participated in the programme from the 2017/2018 academic year.

Budget 2022 provided funding for all DEIS schools currently in the programme. Any provision to extend the current provision of breakfast/snack and cold lunch to the newly added schools to the DEIS programme, including former non-DEIS schools already in the programme, will need to be considered as part of the budgetary process.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.