Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 January 2016
86. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the annual expenditure, the number of recipients and the number of schools under the school meals programme in 2014-15 and in 2015-16. [2781/16]
View answerThe school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food services to schools and organisations at a cost of €39 million in 2015. An additional €3 million was allocated to the programme as part of Budget 2016, bringing the allocation to €42 million in 2016.
There are two schemes operated under the school meals programme. The first scheme is the urban school meals scheme which is operated by local authorities and part-financed by the Department. The second is the school meals local projects scheme through which funding is provided directly to participating schools and local and voluntary community groups who run their own school meals projects.
The urban school meals scheme is processed on a financial year basis. In 2014, approximately €1m was provided by the Department to the local authorities benefiting over 62,000 pupils in some 330 schools. In 2015 €1.1m was provided benefiting over 55,000 pupils in 300 schools. It is likely that a similar amount will be expended in 2016.
Funding under the school meals local projects scheme is provided over the course of an academic year. In the academic year 2014/2015, funding totalling some €32.5m was provided to over 1,100 organisations, benefiting in excess of 155,000 children in 1,340 schools, pre-schools and other groups. For the 2015/2016 academic year, which generally finishes end June, approximately €37m has been committed to date to some 1,090 organisations. The Department continues to receive applications under the scheme.
Following the provision of additional funding in recent budgets, the Department has been in a position to grant increases to DEIS schools and special schools for the current academic year where sought. There has been a particular focus on the promotion of breakfast clubs within the programme, which provide very positive outcomes for vulnerable children in terms of their school attendance, punctuality and energy levels.
