asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will arrange for the extension of the free school meals service to schools in County Dublin.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - School Meals Service.
12.
The Social Welfare Bill, 1975, which is now before Dáil Éireann includes a provision under which an urban local authority may extend the school meals scheme to any national school situated outside their functional area where not less than half of the children attending such school reside either in the authority's functional area or outside that area but in dwellings owned or provided by such authority. No further extension is contemplated at present.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary state what part of the cost will be met by the Department?
The usual amount— 50 per cent.
In view of the special circumstances in County Dublin where there has been such a movement of people from the city to the suburban areas and to the county towns, would the Minister not agree to the full extension of this scheme?
The Bill before the Oireachtas caters for the situation mentioned by the Deputy. For instance, in Ballymun quite a number of people occupy dwellings provided by the city council but the school which the children attend is physically located outside the functional area of that council. There is provision in the Bill to make allowance for that and allow the corporation to extend these provisions to that type of situation.
While I am grateful for the extension with particular reference to the point made by the Parliamentary Secretary about Ballymun there are other similar circumstances. Would the Parliamentary Secretary agree to have a look at them? I am thinking of private developments, leaving aside local authority developments altogether.
I mentioned Ballymun as an example but it is not necessarily confined to Ballymun. If circumstances described in my original reply exist it will lie within the power of the local authority to cater for that need.