Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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163. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of schools in County Kildare that receive funding for breakfast clubs; the number of those that are Deis schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11897/23]

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 2023 has provided €94.4 million for the programme with an additional €14.5m now being provided to allow access to all DEIS schools from September 2023.

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.

There are 24 schools in County Kildare that participate in the School Meals Programme. The number of schools that receive funding for breakfast clubs is 11 of which 10 are DEIS schools.

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 intend to complete the roll-out of the Hot School Meals to all DEIS primary schools and special schools from September 2023, benefiting 64,500 children. I will also bring forward proposals in the coming weeks regarding commencing the roll-out of the Hot School Meals to non-DEIS primary schools.

In addition, the final report from the evaluation of the school meals programme 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.