Skip to main content
Normal View

School Meals.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 November 2004

Thursday, 25 November 2004

Questions (51)

Arthur Morgan

Question:

51 Mr. Morgan asked the Minister for Education and Science if she will respond to ASTI’s request for a feasibility study to be conducted by her Department to establish the way in which schools might provide cooked lunches for pupils. [30539/04]

View answer

Written answers

My colleague, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, administers the school meals scheme, which aims to supplement the nutritional intake of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in order to allow them to fulfil their potential within the educational system and also to reduce the risk of early school leaving.

Under this scheme in 2003, school meals were provided in 729 primary and post-primary schools, encompassing approximately 76,000 pupils, at a cost of €3.3 million. Increased provision of €6 million is being made available to support the school meals scheme in 2004. Officials within my Department are co-operating with the Department of Social and Family Affairs, on an ongoing basis, with a view to further expanding the number of schools participating in the scheme, as well as ensuring that available resources are targeted at those pupils most in need.

Meal provision is also an integral element of the school completion programme, SCP, which is my Department's main programme for tackling early school leaving. There are currently 82 SCP "clusters", encompassing 300 primary and 112 post primary schools. The majority of these clusters operate some level of breakfast support-meal provision. Approximately 15,000 pupils were targeted by the school completion programme in 2003-04. Provision for the programme in 2004 is €23.5 million.

Top
Share