Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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93. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her Department will make necessary upgrades to a school (details supplied) which was approved for the hot meals scheme but deemed unable to participate by her Department due to not having adequate facilities. [40479/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The School Meals Programme, operated by the Department of Social Protection (DSP), provides funding towards the provision of food services to over 2,700 schools and organisations and benefitting some 472,000 children.

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.

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. The Hot School Meals was introduced in 2019 and has been concentrated on primary schools.

As part of the school meals programme, the Government introduced a pilot project in 2019 on hot school meals (hot meals prepared offsite and then delivered to the schools) in primary schools. Since the pilot of 37 schools, the hot school meals programme has grown with 2,000 school and 316,000 children now eligible.

Government has not made any decision regarding extending the scheme to secondary schools – the priority is to extend it to as many primary schools as possible.

Schools are responsible for choosing their own School Meals supplier on the open market in a fair and transparent manner in accordance with Public Procurement rules. DSP provides the funding directly to the schools, who are then required to procure the provision of the food in compliance with Government procurement rules and with relevant Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, Food Safety regulations and the Nutritional Standards for School Meals.

In circumstances where a primary school is unable to secure a hot meals supplier due its location or facilities and space, they should reach out to local caterers or supermarkets within its area. If a school is still unsuccessful in securing a supplier, they should then try to source a local supplier that could instead provide a cold lunch with drink as an alternative to a hot meal.

The secondary school referred to by the Deputy currently receives funding from DSP for a snack and dinner for all of their pupils.

My Department has no record of engagement with the school on this matter.