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School Meals Programme

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 December 2021

Thursday, 16 December 2021

Questions (431, 441, 442, 443, 444, 445, 446, 447, 448, 449)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

431. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of schools participating in the school meals programme that do not have a canteen. [62688/21]

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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

441. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of primary school students in receipt of hot school meals under the school meals programme. [62638/21]

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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

442. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of secondary school students in receipt of hot school meals under the school meals programme. [62639/21]

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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

443. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of students attending special schools in receipt of hot school meals under the school meals programme. [62640/21]

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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

444. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of primary school students in receipt of cold school meals under the school meals programme. [62641/21]

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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

445. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of secondary school students in receipt of cold school meals under the school meals programme. [62642/21]

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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

446. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of students attending special schools in receipt of cold school meals under the school meals programme. [62643/21]

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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

447. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of primary school students not in receipt of school meals under the school meals programme. [62644/21]

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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

448. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of secondary school students not in receipt of school meals under the school meals programme. [62645/21]

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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

449. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of students attending special schools not in receipt of school meals under the school meals programme. [62646/21]

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Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 431 and 441 to 449, 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.

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. The school meals (local projects) scheme provides funding towards the provision of food to schools and organisations.

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 either delivered hot or reheated in the school.

Participation in the scheme is entirely voluntary with the onus being on the individual eligible schools to make an application and to administer the programme in accordance to the guidelines. No information is collated in relation to the onsite canteen facilities in each 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.

Budget 2021 provided an additional €5.5m to extend the provision of hot school meals to an additional 35,000 primary school children, currently receiving the cold lunch option. Invitations for expressions of interest were issued to 705 primary schools (612 DEIS and 93 non-DEIS) in November 2020. A total of 281 (256 DEIS and 25 non-DEIS) 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. Thereafter, a process of random selection was used for each area.

Budget 2022 is providing for the hot school meals to be extended from January 2022 to the 81 DEIS schools that submitted an expression of interest but were not selected in the extension to 35,000.

The number of primary and special needs students in receipt of hot school meals is contained in table 1 of the attached tabular statement. This includes children from the additional 35,000 announced in Budget 2021, where the school was in a position to commence the provision of hot school meals prior to the end of the 2020/2021 academic year. There are no secondary school students in receipt of hot school meals as it is aimed at primary schools with no onsite cooking facilities.

The number of primary, secondary and special needs students in receipt of cold school meals (cold lunch) is contained in table 2 of the attached tabular statement.

The number of primary, secondary and special needs students not in receipt of school meals under the school meals programme is contained in table 3 of the attached tabular statement.

I trust that this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

Table 1 – Number of primary and special needs students in receipt of the hot school meals for academic year 2020/2021

Primary Students

22,537

Special Needs Students

369

Table 2 – Number of primary, secondary and special needs students in receipt of cold school lunch for academic year 2020/2021

Primary Students

106,255

Secondary Students

37,793

Special Needs Students

2,384

Table 3 – Number of primary, secondary and special needs students not in receipt of school meals under the school meals programme for academic year 2020/2021

Primary Students

447,914

Secondary Students

328,216

Special Needs Students

4,246

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