Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent)
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387. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will provide a list of DEIS schools in County Tipperary that participate in the school meals programme in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6525/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The School Meals Programme provides funding towards the provision of food services to some 1,600 schools and organisations benefitting 260,000 children. The objective of the programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking 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. Additional funding for the programme has been provided for 2023 bringing the total to €94.4m. This represents a 53% funding increase in the period since 2020.

Entry to the School Meals Scheme has been confined to DEIS schools in addition to schools identified by the Department of Education as having levels of concentrated disadvantage meaning that their students would benefit from access to the School Meals Programme. Participation in the scheme is entirely voluntary and schools must reapply for funding in advance of each school year.

A list of DEIS schools in County Tipperary that participate in the School Meals Programme is provided in the attached tabular statement.

I am committed to continuing to expand the school meals programme and building further on the significant extension of the programme in recent years. In this regard, I commissioned the evaluation of the school meals programme to review all elements of the programme. The final report was recently received which I am currently reviewing. This report will help to inform future decisions around this important programme.

I trust this clarifies the matter.

Tabular Statement: