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School Meals Programme

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 July 2021

Thursday, 1 July 2021

Ceisteanna (181)

Paul McAuliffe

Ceist:

181. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Social Protection the supports in place for the school meals programme over the summer and the extension of the hot school meals programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35337/21]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

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.Funding under the School Meals Programme is normally confined to the academic year, but an exception has been made this summer in recognition of Covid-19. Funding under the school meals programme will remain available to schools to allow them to continue to provide food during the summer period until the start of the new academic year 2021/2022.This extension will ensure that participating primary and secondary schools can provide food parcels benefiting thousands of pupils over the summer months. Furthermore, funding will be made available to schools participating in the Department of Education’s School Based Education Programme, which focusses on pupils with complex special educational needs and those at risk of education disadvantage.In Budget 2021, I announced that an additional €5.5m would be provided 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. A total of 281 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. As a result of this process, 189 of the 281 schools that submitted an expression of interest were selected. Due to the fact that the funding available was limited to 35,000 children, it was not possible to include all schools that submitted an expression of interest to avail of hot school meals. A number of schools which were selected decided not to proceed and these places have been reallocated to other schools.I am committed to continuing to grow the hot school meals element of the school meals programme and building further on the significant extension announced as part of Budget 2021. I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Question No. 182 answered with Question No. 141.
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