Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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934.To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason a school (details supplied) has not been included in the hot meals programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter.[34154/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The objective of the School Meals 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. Following the expansion of the programme in recent years, some 2,723 schools and organisations, covering 472,000 children are now eligible for funding.

As part of this significant expansion plan, all remaining primary schools were contacted last year and requested to submit an expression of interest form if their school is interested in commencing the provision of Hot School Meals. Expressions of interests were received from over 900 primary schools in respect of 150,000 children and late last year these schools were invited to participate in the Hot School Meals Programme from 8th April 2024.

I have since announced details of an additional 168 primary schools to be newly included in the Hot School Meals Programme from September 2024, and my Department contacted the remaining 1,000 primary schools, including the school referred to, who had not yet applied to join the Hot School Meals scheme, asking them to submit expressions of interest in commencing the provision of Hot School Meals. The responses will be reviewed with the aim of including more schools subject to available funding in Budget 2025.

The school referred to has not expressed an interest in joining the scheme to date. Officials from my Department will be happy to engage further with the school to clarify any queries that they may have.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.