Pearse Doherty
Ceist:481. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Social Protection the projected cost of the school meals programme in 2014. [34306/13]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 16 July 2013
Ceisteanna (481)
Freagraí scríofa
The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food services for disadvantaged children through two schemes. The first is the statutory urban school meals scheme, operated by local authorities and part-financed by this Department. The second is the school meals local projects scheme through which funding is provided directly to participating schools and local and voluntary community groups who run their own school meals projects. There is no automatic entitlement to funding under the school meals local projects scheme and all applications are considered in light of the available budget for the scheme.
There are currently over 190,000 children in over 1,500 schools and organisations benefiting from the programme. Expenditure on the school meals programme in 2012 was €35 million. The Government has allocated an additional €2 million for the programme in 2013, bringing the total budget allocation to €37 million. The budget allocation for the school meals programme for 2014 will be decided and announced as part of the annual budgetary process.