Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 May 2021
563. Deputy Johnny Guirke asked the Minister for Social Protection if a school (details supplied) will be included in the hot school meals programme alongside DEIS schools in view of the fact that community employment scheme employees providing this service for the past 16 years at this school are no longer approved, leading to the facility being withdrawn; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26429/21]
View answerThe school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,506 schools and organisations benefitting 230,000 children. The objective of the programme 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.
As part of Budget 2019, funding was provided for a pilot scheme from September 2019, providing hot school meals in primary schools at a cost of €1m for 2019 and €2.5m in 2020. The pilot involved 37 schools benefitting 6,744 students for the 2019/2020 academic year and was aimed primarily at schools with no onsite cooking facilities.
In Budget 2021, I announced that an additional €5.5m would be provided to extend the provision of hot school meals to an additional 35,000 primary school children, currently receiving the cold lunch option on the school meals programme. 189 schools have been selected and officials from my department are currently engaging with these schools to commence the provision of hot school meals.
As St Mary’s Special School is not currently receiving the cold lunch option, they were not issued with an expression of interest.
Any further extension of the provision of hot meals will need to be considered in a budgetary context.
The school currently receives funding for providing breakfast and hot dinner to pupils attending the school. If the school continues to provide a hot dinner, albeit that the food is prepared off-site, the current funding will remain in place from September 2021.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
