Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 September 2021
519. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of providing hot school meals for every DEIS school in Ireland; and the number of DEIS schools already part of the hot school meal programme. [46789/21]
View answer520. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of providing hot school meals for every primary school in Ireland; and the number of primary schools already part of the hot school meal programme. [46790/21]
View answer521. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of providing hot school meals for every post-primary school in Ireland; and the number of post-primary schools already part of the hot school meal programme. [46791/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 519 to 521, inclusive, together.
The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,506 schools and organisations benefiting 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.
A budget of €65.1 million has been provided for the scheme in 2021.
The programme provides funding towards food services for disadvantaged school children through two schemes: the urban school meals scheme and the school meals (local projects) scheme. The Urban School Meals Scheme for primary schools is operated and administered by local authorities and is part-financed by my Department.
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 at primary 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.
There are currently 186,205 pupils in 887 DEIS schools in Ireland. To provide a hot meal, at a cost of €2.90 per child, per day, to all students in these schools would cost €93.8m for a full school year. There were 25 DEIS schools in the hot school meals pilot and an additional 171 DEIS schools have been included in the extension this year.
There are 561,411 students in 3,241 primary schools in Ireland and 379,184 students in 730 secondary schools. The total cost of providing a hot meal to every student in every primary and secondary school at a rate of €2.90 per child, per day, would cost €474.5m in a full school year. (€293.1m for primary schools; €181.4 for secondary schools)
There are currently 226 primary schools and 42,744 children participating in the Hot Meals Scheme. In addition, 24,614 students in 118 secondary schools receive funding for a dinner clubs at the rate of €1.90, per child, per day. 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 either delivered hot or reheated in the school.
I am committed to continuing to grow the hot school meals element of the school meals programme and building further on the significant extension announced as part of Budget 2021.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
