Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 September 2022
1143. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide a list of the schools in the Dublin 9 and 11 region that are part of the hot meals programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43458/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,700 schools and organisations benefitting 260,000 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.
Budget 2022 provided €68.1 million for the programme.
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 students for the 2019/2020 academic year and was aimed primarily at schools with no onsite cooking facilities.
In Budget 2021, I announced 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 for by each 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 provided for 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. This brought the number of children benefitting from a hot school meal to 54,266 in the 2021/2022 school year.
In March 2022, the Minister for Education announced an extension of the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in School to an additional 283 primary and 38 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.
Details of the schools in the Dublin 9 and 11 region that provided hot school meals for the 2021/2022 school year and the new DEIS primary school with access to hot school meal funding from September 2022 are contained in the attached tabular statement.
I am committed to continuing to grow the school meals programme and in particular the hot school meals element, building further on the significant extensions announced previously. 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 will need to be considered as part of the budgetary process.
I trust this clarifies the matter.
Table 1 – Schools in the Dublin 9 and 11 region that are part of the hot school meals programme at the end of June 2022
|
School Roll Number |
School Name |
Address |
|
|
18137D |
S N Naomh Feargal Boys Senior |
Finglas West |
Dublin 11 |
|
19015R |
St Joseph’s G N S |
Barry Avenue |
Dublin 11 |
|
19197D |
St Kevin’s B N S |
Barry Avenue |
Dublin 11 |
|
19546C |
St Oliver Plunkett N S |
St Helena's Drive |
Dublin 11 |
|
19619D |
St Malachys Ns |
St. Helena's Road |
Dublin 11 |
|
19929S |
St Brigid’s Senior Girls |
Wellmount Avenue |
Dublin 11 |
|
20220C |
Gaelscoil Uí Earcain |
Bóthar Ghlas An Éin |
Dublin 11 |
Table 2 – New DEIS Primary Schools in the Dublin 9 and 11 region from September 2022 that have access to hot school meal funding
|
School Roll Number |
School Name |
Address |
||
|
17214N |
St. Vincent's Primary School |
St Philomena’s Road |
Glasnevin |
Dublin 11 |
