Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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395. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the arrangements in place to ensure meals of a poor nutritional rating are avoided in school meals, and that participating children consume a balanced mix of meat and vegetables over the course of each week; if the composition of meals is tracked to ensure high standards of nutrition; and if the project has adopted targets in respect of the management of waste and packaging. [21223/23]

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 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.

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. This evaluation is evidence-based and sets out a series of recommendations for expanding the School Meals Programme into the future. There is an overwhelming consensus among all participants in the evaluation that the school Meals Programme is effective and indicates strong support for extending the School Meals Programme.

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. These meals must meet the nutritional standards for the school meals programme. The Nutritional Standards for School Meals were developed by a working group led by the Health and Wellbeing Programme in the Department of Health, in consultation with Safefood and the Healthy Eating and Active Living Programme in the Health Service Executive.

All schools must satisfy the nutritional standards, must submit a sample menu with their application and must provide detailed records at the end of each school year. Expenditure on unhealthy food items is deducted from the funding allocation. There is no targets set in relation to waste and packaging; however, any necessary additional measures in respect of waste and packaging will be considered having regard to the findings of the evaluation.

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 remaining DEIS primary and Special schools from September 2023, benefiting more than 60,000 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 from 2024.

I trust this clarifies the matter.