Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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913. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of extending the school meal scheme for post primary schools to all post primary schools in the State. [29774/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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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.

In Budget 2025, it was announced that the Hot School Meals will be extended to all remaining primary schools in 2025, meaning that approximately 3,700 schools and 682,000 children will be eligible for school meals in 2025.

A budget of €300 million has been provided for the scheme in 2025.

There is currently 282 Post Primary Schools with 99,265 students in the School Meals Programme. The current cost of the School Meals Programme in Post Primary Schools is €39 million. Therefore, the estimated cost of providing the Hot School Meals to the remaining all post primary schools would be €181m.

I trust this clarifies the matter.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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914. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the average cost of children's allowance paid to parents each month. [29775/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Child Benefit is a monthly payment to families with children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their 19th birthday where they are in full-time education or have a disability. It is paid in respect of almost 1.3 million children. Expenditure on the scheme is estimated at over €2.2 billion in 2025, with a monthly estimated average of €183.3 million.

I trust this clarifies the position.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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915. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the cost of providing breakfast club to all DEIS primary schools. [29780/25]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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930. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of providing breakfast clubs to all DEIS primary schools in the state. [29837/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 915 and 930 together.

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.

In Budget 2025, it was announced that the Hot School Meals Scheme will be extended to all remaining primary schools in 2025, meaning that approximately 3,700 schools and 682,000 children will be eligible for school meals in 2025.

A budget of €300 million has been provided for the scheme in 2025.

The estimated cost of providing Breakfast Club to all DEIS primary school pupils is €20.7m.

I trust this clarifies the matter.