Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

370. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will allocate additional funding to a school (details supplied) for the school meals programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44486/22]

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

The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,700 schools and organisations benefitting 260,000 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.

Budget 2022 provided €68.1 million for the programme with an additional €9m provided to allow access to all new DEIS schools from September 2022.

Funding under the school meals programme can be provided for breakfast, snack, cold lunch, dinner, hot school meals and afterschool clubs and is based on a maximum rate per child per day, depending on the type of meal being provided.

The school referred to by the Deputy was approved for a breakfast and dinner club for the 2022/2023 academic year. Funding has issued to the school for the breakfast club at 0.60c per child per day and for the dinner at €1.90 per child per day. The Principal has reported difficulties securing suppliers for the provision of these meals at these rates.

I am committed to continuing to grow the school meals programme building further on the significant extensions announced previously. In this regard, I have commissioned an evaluation of the school meals programme to be undertaken in 2022, where all elements of the programme including the funding rates per meal are being reviewed. This evaluation will inform future policy decisions on the programme.

Any extension of the school meals programme will need to be considered as part of the budgetary process.

I trust this clarifies the matter.