Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 July 2022
644. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the revised additional cost of providing hot meals free of charge to all children attending DEIS primary schools for a full-year and for the first-year in view of the recent announcement of 60,000 children receiving meals under the school meals programme. [37930/22]
View answer645. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the details in relation to the announcement recently that 60,000 additional children will receive school meals; and if these will be hot or cold school meals; and the number of children who will receive hot school meals under this new measure. [37931/22]
View answer646. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the cost of the measure announced recently to provide school meals to 60,000 additional children. [37932/22]
View answer647. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the total cost of the school meals programme taking into account the recently announced expansion of the programme to 60,000 additional children. [37933/22]
View answer648. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the total cost of the hot school meals programme taking into account the recently announced expansion of the school meals programme to 60,000 additional children. [37934/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 644 to 648, inclusive, together.
The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,800 schools and organisations benefitting 290,000 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.
In recent years entry to the school meals programme has been confined to DEIS schools in addition to schools identified as having levels of concentrated disadvantage that would benefit from access to the programme.
Budget 2022 provided for the hot school meals to be extended from January 2022 to the remaining 81 DEIS schools that had expressed an interest in the programme but which were not yet participating. As a result, the number of children in receipt of the hot school meal in June 2022 was 54,266. The full year cost for hot school meals for 54,266 children is €28m.
In March 2022, the Minister for Education announced an extension of the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in School to an additional 273 primary and 37 post-primary schools from September 2022.
I have recently announced that the provision of the hot school meal option will be extended to all new DEIS primary schools and the cold lunch option to all new DEIS secondary schools at a full year cost of €26m and benefitting some 60,000 children. However, as 31 of these schools are already in receipt of some funding, the additional cost of providing these options is €23.5m in a full year, with the first-year cost from September to December of €9.5m.
There are 444 DEIS schools not receiving the hot school meal. The full year cost to provide a hot school meal to these 63,260 remaining DEIS children is €33m. However, as 402 of these schools are already receiving the cold lunch, the additional cost of providing a hot school meal is €20m, with the first-year cost from September to December of €8m.
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. 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.
I trust that this clarifies the position for the Deputy.
