Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 March 2022
4. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of schools participating in the schools meals scheme in each of the years 2017 to 2021 and to date in 2022; and the total amount of funding made available for the scheme per year. [15139/22]
View answerThe amount of money being allocated to the school meals programme has been increasing year on year. That sounds like a good thing, but when one examines the situation, the number of schools availing of the programme has been reducing. This means that a small number of children are getting those school meals. It could be because of an increase in the cost of the programme, etc. What is happening? Is the amount of money being given to the programme increasing? Is the number of schools availing of it increasing? Is the number of children availing of it increasing?
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to 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 educational achievement.
The programme provides funding towards food services for children in disadvantaged schools through two schemes, those being, 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 part financed by my Department. Some 311 schools were part financed in 2017, 307 in 2018, 305 in 2019, 301 in 2020 and 279 in 2021.
The school meals local projects scheme is financed by my Department. Some 1,463 schools and organisations received funding in 2017-18, 1,461 receiving funding in 2018-19, 1,466 received funding in 2019-20, 1,480 received funding in 2020-21 and 1,361 received funding to date for 2021-22. The total amount of funding made available for the scheme in 2017 was €47.5 million, €54 million in 2018, €57.6 million in 2019, €61.6 million in 2020 and €65.1 million in 2021. In 2022, €68.1 million is available.
I am committed to continuing the growth of the school meals programme, in particular the hot school meals element, and building further on the significant extension announced as part of budget 2022. In this regard, I have commissioned an evaluation of the school meals programme, to be undertaken in 2022, to inform future policy decisions on the scheme.
If I am correct, it is still the case that the amount of money being given to the programme is increasing but the number of children or, at least, schools receiving it is falling or remaining static, depending on which section of it one is looking at. We very properly debate in the House the cost of living increasing throughout the State. There is an issue with inflation in the inputs into school meals, meaning that more money goes less distance towards meeting the needs of young children in those schools.
We are seeing a greater need for this service now. Families are being squeezed by the cost of living. Throughout Ireland today, there are young children going to sleep hungry. This has a significant effect on many aspects of their lives, not just their physical growth, but also their mental health and their ability to participate in education. What we need is a commitment from the Government that not only will the amount of money invested in the programme increase, but the number of children and schools availing of it will also increase.
I am committed to the school meals programme, so much so that we have increased the hot school meals programme from a pilot of 37 schools to almost 300. This is a good thing. During the 2020-21 academic year, 804 DEIS schools participated in the school meals programme, benefiting 148,594 children. Those 804 schools represented 91% of the 887 DEIS schools in the country.
The Deputy asked about the criteria. All 3,239 primary schools were issued an invitation to submit an expression of interest about participating in the pilot. The school had to identify a supplier that would supply, prepare and deliver the hot meals in line with food safety regulations and in compliance with Healthy Ireland's nutrition standards for school meals. The schools chosen to participate in the pilot were selected randomly, having regard to geographical spread, numbers enrolled, the range of suppliers and the programme's overall budget.
I have continued to increase the programme every year. The number of children getting hot school meals continues to increase.
For more than a year, the Meath food bank was operating out of my office in Trim because it was without any other location from which to operate. It was shockingly sad to see young children and their parents queuing daily outside the Aontú office in Trim for food. The fact that food banks even exist in Ireland in today's world is incredible. Many of them sprung up during the previous economic crash. They did not go away and have been functioning ever since. In many cases, they will say that they are busier than ever.
We must deal with the cost of living crisis for everyone, but we need to prioritise certain sections of society, one of which must surely be children living in poverty. There are a significant number of children living in poverty. Judging from the numbers that the Minister just read out, it is clear that the money going into the programme is increasing. While that is welcome, the number of schools covered by its schemes has not increased to the same level. It is this level of reach that we need to get to in order to ensure that no child in this country goes to bed hungry anymore.
We are increasing it, but instead of increasing the numbers, I want to see there being more hot school meals. They are a little more expensive, but a hot school meal for a child in the middle of the day is worth its weight in gold. We all know from packing school lunch boxes with cold meals that children take a bite of them but are then away and gone.
Having spoken with teachers and parents, they value hot school meals. We cannot do everything in one day and must instead do it incrementally. I would love to see every child in this country, regardless of status, getting a hot dinner in the middle of the day. It is something of which we would be proud. The Deputy and I know what it is like putting stuff in lunch boxes and trying to get children to eat it.
Most of the time they leave them at the bottom of the school bag and by the time someone gets to them, it is a black banana and a smelly ham sandwich that is gone off and blue moulded. I want to see a hot school meal delivered to every child while seated at a table. I will work to continue to increase that provision. The Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, is supportive of that.
