Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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130. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of children who will receive a hot school meal in the new school term from September; and the number planned for the following year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31600/23]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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163. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to outline the progress on the expansion of the Hot School Meals Programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33093/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 130, 155 and 163 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.

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, benefiting more than 60,000 children.

In the 2022/2023 academic year 113,388 pupils in 570 schools benefitted from Hot School Meals. An additional 65,638 pupils in 498 DEIS schools and 7,385 pupils in 110 special schools were invited to apply for the Hot School Meals from September 2023.

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.