The School Meals Programme provides funding to some 1,580 schools and organisations benefitting 250,000 children at a cost of €54 million in 2018.
The objective of the Scheme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children who are unable, due to lack of good quality food, to take full advantage of the education provided to them.
As the Deputy will be aware the Department commenced inspection of schools in 2012. Reports on the results of the inspections have been compiled in respect of each year. The report for 2017 is being compiled at present and inspections for 2018 are ongoing. A report will be compiled for 2018 in due course. A summary of results for the years in which reports are available is appended to this reply. Copies of the reports for 2012 to 2016 inclusive will be forwarded to the Deputy under separate cover. All issues arising in non- compliant and partially compliant cases are followed up by the Department.
The Deputy will be aware that ‘Nutrition Standards for School Meals ’ published in September 2017 under the auspices of Healthy Ireland, is a valuable resource to enable and promote healthy eating and healthy lifestyles in schools. These standards complement and strengthen the healthy eating guidelines that were already in place. The standards were introduced commencing from January 2018 and all schools participating in the school meals scheme are expected to fully comply with these standards from September 2018. The requirement to implement these nutrition standards is met by the schools and organisations who are responsible for the delivery model and choice of supplier to be used. Compliance with the new standards will form part of the inspection process from the 2018/2019 academic year.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
Appendix
School Meals Scheme inspections and outcomes 2012 - 2016
Reference year
|
2012
|
2013
|
2014
|
2015
|
2016
|
Total number of organisations in the scheme*
|
1,020
|
999
|
997
|
1,330
|
1,330
|
Total number of organisations inspected
|
60
|
105
|
81
|
84
|
297
|
Outcome
|
|
|
|
|
|
Non-compliant
|
1
|
1
|
-
|
4
|
6
|
Partially
compliant
|
7
|
7
|
17
|
9
|
40
|
Compliant
|
51
|
95
|
62
|
71
|
251
|
*The number of individual schools inspected is higher, because some organisations provide services to a number of schools.