School Meals Programme

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 October 2011

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Questions (216)

Michael McCarthy

Question:

245 Deputy Michael McCarthy asked the Minister for Social Protection the cost of the school meals programme to her Department in 2009 and 2010, specifying the separate costs to the urban school meals scheme and school meals local projects scheme; the number of companies engaged in each scheme; the name of each company; the amount paid per company in 2009 and 2010 in tabular form; the number of local companies who are currently under investigation by her Department for being suspected of billing in excess of the amount that they are owed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28336/11]

Written answers

Minister for Social Protection (Deputy Joan Burton)

The School Meals Programme gives funding towards the provision of food services for disadvantaged children through two schemes. The first is the statutory Urban School Meals Scheme, operated by local authorities and part-financed by this Department. The second is the School Meals Local Projects Schemes through which funding is provided directly to participating schools and local and voluntary community groups who run their own school meals projects.

Year	Urban School Meals Scheme	School Meals Local Projects Schemes	Total
2009	€1.2m	€33.6m	€34.8m
2010	€0.8m	€34.2m	€35m

The allocation for the programme for 2011 is €35 m.

The Department has no direct interaction with any company who are engaged in the provision of food services to individual groups/schools who take part in the School Meals programme and are not in a position to provide the information sought. Payments under the programme are made directly to the group/school. The Department has an ongoing programme of control work in relation to all of its schemes including the school meals programme. The Department does not comment in relation to individual cases.