Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 31 May 2022
472. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated set-up costs attached to facilitating hot meals being made available in each primary school that currently does not have hot meals and that parents would be charged cost price for. [27799/22]
View answer473. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated set-up costs attached to facilitating hot meals being available in each secondary school that currently does not have hot meals, that parents would be charged cost-price for. [27800/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 472 and 473 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 €68.1 million has been provided for the scheme in 2022.
Funding provided by the Department is for food costs only. Funding cannot be used to finance start-up costs, administration, equipment, salaries, bank charges or any other non-food costs. The choice of school meals project and supplier to be used, as well as all financial and health and safety aspects, are the responsibility of the school/organisation.
In the 2020/2021 school year there were 561,411 primary school children enrolled and 379,184 secondary school children enrolled. The estimated overall cost of providing a hot school meal, free of charge to every primary school child and secondary school child is €474.5m.
The number of children currently in receipt of hot school meals is 54,236. This represents almost 10% of the total primary school population. There are no secondary school children in receipt of hot school meals as it is aimed at primary schools with no onsite cooking facilities.
The estimated cost of providing hot school meals to the remaining primary schools that currently do not have hot meals is €252.3m. The estimated cost of providing hot school meals to all secondary schools is €181.4m.
I am committed to continuing to grow the hot school meals element of the school meals programme for DEIS schools and building further on the significant extension announced as part of Budgets 2021 and 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.
Any extension of the school meals programme or the hot school meals beyond 2022 will need to be considered as part of the budgetary process.
I trust that this clarifies the position for the deputy.
