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 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 provided €94.4 million for the programme.  The Government recently approved an additional €14.5m to allow access to the Hot School Meals scheme for all remaining DEIS schools from September 2023.

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

On 30th March, I published an independent evaluation of the School Meals Programme which sets out the positive impact the Programme is having in terms of children’s education and wellbeing.  The report recommends an interim increase in funding rates for all meal options in the School Meals Programme which I have introduced, effective from 1st January 2023. 

There are 430 non-DEIS status schools providing hot or cold meals to children.  The number is broken down by county 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 that has taken place in recent years.  In this regard, I intend to roll out the Hot School Meals to all DEIS primary schools from September 2023, benefiting 64,500 children.  I will also bring forward proposals in the coming weeks on commencing the roll out of the Hot School Meals to non-DEIS primary schools.

I trust this clarifies the matter.

The number of non-DEIS schools receiving hot or cold meals by county