Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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708. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the schools across County Louth that operated a breakfast club for the academic school year 2024-2025 ; and the number of children in each school who received meals through each breakfast club, in tabular form. [63041/25]

Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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710. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of schools in County Louth that have applied for the school meals scheme to date in the current academic school year 2025-2026. [63043/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 708 and 710 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.

Following the Budget 2025 announcement all primary schools are now eligible for the Hot School Meals Scheme, meaning that approximately 3,700 schools and organisations and 682,000 children are now be eligible for the School Meals Programme.

It is important to note that the 2025/2026 academic school year started a few weeks ago and applications continue to be received and processed. The table below gives the current position of the Louth schools for 2024/25 and 2025/26 to date.