Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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92. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her Department has measured the progress and success of the school meals programme relating to diet, attendance and educational attainment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24447/23]

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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101. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans for the implementation of the recommendations of the recently published independent evaluation of the school meals programme; the timeline for same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24633/23]

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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109. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will expedite the process of extending school meals to all schools way before the previous timeline (details supplied). [22812/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 92, 101 and 109 together.

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.

In the evaluation, 74% of Principals indicated that it improved physical health, 54% of Principals indicated that it approved attendance and 51% of Principals indicated that it improved performance. The evaluation also recommends future research into the impact of the School Meals Programme through the collection and collation of longitudinal data on academic and health outcomes.

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.

Since my appointment as Minister for Social Protection, I have increased the number of schools with access to the Hot School Meal option from 37 to over 500. 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. This will increase the numbers on the scheme dramatically to 1,000 schools and 150,000 children.

As part of significant plans to extend the Hot School Meals to all children in the coming years all remaining primary schools have been contacted and have been asked to submit an expression of interest form if their school is interested in commencing the provision of hot school meals. From 2024, I intend commencing the roll-out of Hot School Meals to all remaining primary schools on a phased basis.

I trust this clarifies the matter.