Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 May 2022
467. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of children availing of hot free school meals; the number that this equates to in terms of the percentage of the total student population; and the total cost of same. [25960/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra468. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of providing hot free school meals to all children currently availing of free school meals. [25961/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra469. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of providing hot free school meals to all children attending DEIS primary schools. [25962/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra470. 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. [25963/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra471. 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. [25964/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 467 to 471, inclusive, 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. My Department does not impose any costs on parents. All other aspects of the operation of school meals projects, including set up costs, are the responsibility of the school/group. The choice of school meals project and supplier to be used, as well as all financial and health and safety aspects, is the responsibility of the school/group.
As part of Budget 2019, funding was provided for a pilot scheme from September 2019, providing hot school meals in primary schools at a cost of €1m for 2019 and €2.5m in 2020. The pilot involved 37 schools benefitting 6,744 children for the 2019/2020 academic year and was aimed primarily at schools with no onsite cooking facilities.
In Budget 2021, I announced that an additional €5.5m 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 (612 DEIS and 93 non-DEIS) in November 2020. A total of 281 (256 DEIS and 25 non-DEIS) 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.
Budget 2022 is providing for the hot school meals to be extended from January 2022 to the 81 DEIS schools that submitted an expression of interest but were not selected in the extension to 35,000 children as referred to earlier.
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 additional cost of providing a hot meal to all the primary school children currently in receipt of school meals is approximately €47.85m.
The estimated additional cost of providing a hot school meal free of charge to all DEIS primary school children is €54.8m.
The estimated overall cost of providing a hot school meal free of charge every school day to every primary school child, secondary school child and every child attending a special school is contained in the attached tabular statement.
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.
The estimated cost of providing a hot school meal to every primary, secondary and special school child
|
School Type |
Hot Meal |
|
Primary |
€288.7m |
|
Secondary |
€181.4m |
|
Special Schools |
€4.4m |
|
Total Cost |
€474.5m |
