Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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292. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the amount of funding that has been provided to the school meals programme for the past five years by county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28586/22]

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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293. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the expected timeline for the review of the school meals programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28587/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 292 and 293 together.

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 €68.1 million has been provided for the programme in 2022.  The allocation for the school meals programme was increased substantially over a series of budgets - increasing from €35million in 2012 to €68.1 million in 2022 (almost 95% of an increase).  The amount of school meals funding that has been provided for the past five school years by county is provided in the attached tabular statement.

I am committed to continuing to grow the school meals programme and in particular the hot school meals element of the programme, building further on the significant extension announced as part of Budget 2022.  In this regard, I have commissioned an evaluation of the school meals programme to be undertaken in 2022 to inform future policy decisions on the scheme.

This evaluation will assess all aspects of the provision of school meals and will engage with all stakeholders.  This evaluation will consider:

- The extent to which the school meals programme has improved school attendance and educational achievement/outcomes.

- The extent to which the school meals programme has alleviated food poverty and/or improved deprivation measures among families of children who benefit from the programme.

- Whether or not the current method of targeting the programme vis the DEIS categorisation is effective/the implications for the outcomes measured in (a) and (b) of extending the scheme to non-DEIS schools.

- Whether the current school meal programme is effective.

- How the scheme compares with programmes in peer states.

- Identify gaps and recommend changes to the current programme and propose a design for an effective impact evaluation of the school meals programme.

- Implications of the EU Child Guarantee for the SMP.

The evaluation is due for completion in November 2022.

I trust that this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

Tabular Statement - The amount of school meals funding provided for the past five years by county

*Provisional Figures