Skip to main content
Normal View

School Meals Programme

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 May 2021

Tuesday, 25 May 2021

Questions (397, 398, 399, 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 405, 406)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

397. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of schools that provide hot school meals by county in tabular form. [27860/21]

View answer

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

398. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of primary schools that provide hot school meals by county in tabular form. [27861/21]

View answer

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

399. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of post-primary schools that provide hot school meals by county in tabular form. [27862/21]

View answer

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

400. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of special schools that provide hot school meals by county in tabular form. [27863/21]

View answer

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

401. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of alternative education settings including youthreach and related schemes that provide hot school meals by county in tabular form. [27864/21]

View answer

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

402. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the percentage of schools that provide hot school meals. [27865/21]

View answer

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

403. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the percentage of primary schools that provide hot school meals. [27866/21]

View answer

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

404. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the percentage of post-primary schools that provide hot school meals. [27867/21]

View answer

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

405. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the percentage of special schools that provide hot school meals. [27868/21]

View answer

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

406. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the percentage of alternative education settings including youthreach and related schemes that provide hot meals. [27869/21]

View answer

Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 397 to 406, inclusive, together.

The 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.

Funding under the school meals (local projects) scheme can be provided for breakfast, snack, lunch, dinner, hot meals and afterschool clubs and is based on a maximum rate per child per day, depending on the type of meal being provided e.g. €1.40 per child per day where a cold lunch club is being provided, €1.90 per child per day where a dinner club is being provided and €2.90 per child per day where a Hot Meal club is being provided. Dinner clubs provide a hot meal, but are different from the Hot Meals clubs, in that they tend to be provided by schools with onsite cooking facilities whereas food for Hot Meals clubs is cooked offsite and delivered to the school.

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. My Department issued invitations for expressions of interest to 705 primary schools in November 2020. A total of 281 expressions of interest were received in respect of 52,148 children.

The 35,000 places were allocated to each local authority area based on the number of children applied by local authority as a percentage of the total number. A minimum of one school for each Local Authority area was selected.

As a result of this process, 189 of the 281 schools that submitted an expression of interest were selected.

A breakdown of the number of primary schools, post-primary schools, special schools, alternative education settings and schools by county is contained in table 1 in the attached tabular statement. These figures include schools that provided a dinner club and those that operated the Hot Meals Pilot in 2020/2021.

A breakdown of the percentage of primary schools, post-primary schools, special schools, and alternative education settings is contained in table 2 in the attached tabular statement. These figures include schools that provided a dinner club and those that operated the hot school meals pilot in 2021.

Tabular Statement

Table 1 – Number providing Hot Dinners and Hot School Meals

County

Primary Schools

Post-Primary Schools

Special schools

Alternative Education Settings

Total Hot Dinners and Hot Meals

Carlow

4

2

0

3

9

Cavan

2

1

1

2

6

Clare

3

0

2

2

7

Cork

8

7

0

9

24

Donegal

13

13

1

1

28

Dublin

40

25

4

39

108

Galway

5

9

3

3

20

Kerry

4

1

0

3

8

Kildare

3

1

1

1

6

Kilkenny

1

4

1

1

7

Laois

2

2

2

0

6

Leitrim

3

0

0

0

3

Limerick

7

4

2

4

17

Longford

0

5

1

2

8

Louth

5

2

1

3

11

Mayo

6

6

4

0

16

Meath

0

5

1

1

7

Monaghan

3

4

0

7

14

Offaly

1

2

1

0

4

Roscommon

2

2

2

3

9

Sligo

4

4

0

2

10

Tipperary

3

5

0

2

10

Waterford

5

2

1

3

11

Westmeath

1

2

1

3

7

Wexford

4

4

0

2

10

Wicklow

4

1

0

0

5

Table 2 – Percentage providing Hot Dinner or Hot School Meal

Total Number

Number providing Hot Dinner or Hot School Meal

% Providing Hot School Meals

Primary Schools

3,107

133

4.28%

Post-Primary Schools

730

113

15.48%

Special Schools

134

29

21.64%

Alternative Educations Settings

Not available*

96

Not Available

* The total number of these types of organisations is not held.

Question No. 398 answered with Question No. 397.
Question No. 399 answered with Question No. 397.
Question No. 400 answered with Question No. 397.
Question No. 401 answered with Question No. 397.
Question No. 402 answered with Question No. 397.
Question No. 403 answered with Question No. 397.
Question No. 404 answered with Question No. 397.
Question No. 405 answered with Question No. 397.
Question No. 406 answered with Question No. 397.
Top
Share