Ireland receives an EU allocation of €900,398, annually in respect of the School Milk Scheme of which €675,298 representing (75% of the allocation) is available for spend on product. Under EU rules, the balance of the funds must be spent on other measures including educational measures to support the scheme.
An additional allocation of unused funds on application to the EU Commission is also possible under reallocation rules. The funds, however, are not sufficient to allow for free milk to all children participating in the School Milk Scheme.
In order to maximise the EU allocation, Ireland uses the funds to make the scheme more affordable for parents of children attending non-DEIS schools and to support the free distribution of milk in DEIS school.
The funds are disbursed in the form of a subsidy to the National Dairy Council (NDC) the approved EU School Milk scheme Aid Applicant. This subsidy bridges the difference between the market/gross price of the milk charged to all schools by each Dairy co-op supplier (by public procurement run by the NDC) and the net price charged subsequently by the schools to parents. The amount forming the difference remaining is equal to what is called the parental levy which arises for non DEIS schools.
The EU Scheme in its present formation commenced in 2017 for the 2017/2018 school year. In the current school year 2020/2021 the average parental levy/cost per child per week is €0.91. The respective figures for 2019/2020 = €0.84, 2018/2019 = €0.80 and 2017/2018 = €1.28. The parental levies are not remitted to my Department, but to the relevant co-op suppliers by the schools concerned.
In the school year 2019/2020, there were 592 schools with 53,517 participating pupils in the School Milk Scheme. I am advised that:
the total number of schools with parental contribution was
2017/2018
2018/2019
2019/2020 2020/2021
319 268 282 *(n/a)
The total value of the parental contributions were:
2017/2018
2018/2019
2019/2020 2020/2021
€516,883 €366,413 €252,349 *(n/a)
* school year reporting period incomplete
Further, the Deputy should be aware, not every school or child in every school (DEIS or other) opts to take part in the school milk scheme, and those that do, do not necessarily participate for the entire school year.
