Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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531. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost in providing free school meals for the 310 schools to be added to the DEIS programme in September 2022; the current annual cost to the Department of the provision of free school meals to those schools currently in the programme; the reason that funding for these additional school meals was not increased in line with the expansion of the DEIS programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38848/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,800 schools and organisations benefitting 290,000 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 scheme in 2022. 

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

Budget 2022 provided for the hot school meals to be extended from January 2022 to the remaining 81 DEIS schools that had expressed an interest in the programme but which were not yet participating. As a result, the number of children in receipt of the hot school meal in June 2022 was 54,266. The full year cost for hot school meals for 54,266 children is €28m.

In March 2022, the Minister for Education announced an extension of the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in School to an additional 273 primary and 37 post-primary schools from September 2022.

I have recently announced that the provision of the hot school meal option will be extended to all new DEIS primary schools and the cold lunch option to all new DEIS secondary schools at a full year cost of €26m and benefitting some 60,000 children.

I am committed to continuing to grow the hot school meals element of the school meals programme for DEIS schools and building further on the significant extension announced.  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. 

I trust that this clarifies the position for the deputy.