Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 July 2020
586. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of the extension of the school meals programme over the summer months in 2020. [18206/20]
View answer587. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing the school meals programme budget by 5%, 10%, 20% and 25%, respectively; and the estimated cost of extending the programme budget to include provision for breakfast in addition to lunch. [18207/20]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 586 and 587 together.
The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,580 schools and organisations benefitting 250,000 children. 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. The programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement.
Following the announcement of the closure of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic on 12th March 2020, schools and organisations participating in the school meals programme expressed concerns about the impact of school closures on pupils who avail of school meals, and that the unavailability of school meals impacts in particular on the most disadvantaged in our society.
My Department confirmed that funding to schools would continue to enable schools to provide food until the end of the current school year - the end of May 2020 for post-primary schools and the end of June 2020 for primary schools, in line with the parameters of the school meals scheme. This funding was further extended to allow schools who choose to continue to provide food during the summer period until the start of the new academic year 2020/2021. The extension of the school meals programme over the summer months will be provided for within the budget of €61.6 million for 2020.
Based on the 2020 budgetary allocation of €61.6 million, the additional annual costs of expanding the school meals programme by 5%, 10%, 20% and 25% are €3.1 million, €6.2 million, €12.3 million and €15.4 million, respectively.
The School Meals Scheme can provide funding for breakfast or snack, lunch and afterschool, subject to submission of an application. The scheme is currently available to all 891 DEIS schools, where 162 are not availing of the breakfast or snack. If these schools submitted an application for breakfast, it would cost €2.8m.
Changes to increase the funding of any scheme administered by my Department would have to be considered in a budgetary context.
