Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 December 2022
384. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 671 of 8 November 2022, if the independent evaluation of the school meals programme to inform future policy direction that she referred to and the final report due to be completed by the end of the year is on schedule; the timeline for the publication of the report; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [62354/22]
View answer385. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Social Protection the reason that schools which were approved for the school meals scheme in 2022 received the funding for the hot dinner option at a cost of €2.90 in contradiction to the Government website which stated the option of €1.90, and a €0.50 snack; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [62355/22]
View answer386. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Social Protection the regulation that is in place in relation to the suppliers of the school meals scheme and the way that they are ensuring that health and safety guidelines are being met; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [62356/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 384, 385 and 386 together.
The School Meals Programme provides funding towards the provision of food services to some 1,600 schools and organisations benefitting 260,000 children. The objective of the programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking 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 with an additional €9m provided to allow access to all new DEIS schools from September 2022. Additional funding for the programme has been provided for 2023 bringing the total to €91.6m. This represents a 49% funding increase in the period since 2020.
Funding under the school meals programme can be provided for breakfast, snack, cold lunch, dinner, hot school meals and afterschool clubs and is based on a maximum rate per child per day, depending on the type of meal being provided.
My Department provides the funding directly to the schools and organisations, who are then required to procure the provision of the food in compliance with relevant HACCP, Food Safety regulations and the Nutritional Standards for School Meals. The Nutritional Standards for School Meals were developed by a working group led by the Health and Wellbeing Programme in the Department of Health, in consultation with Safefood and the Healthy Eating and Active Living Programme in the Health Service Executive.
The current rates of funding are €0.60 for a breakfast/snack, €1.40 for the cold lunch, €1.90 for the dinner and €2.90 for the hot school meal. The dinner provides a hot meal, but are different from the hot school meal, in that they tend to be provided by schools with onsite cooking facilities whereas food for hot school meals is prepared offsite and either delivered hot or reheated in the school.
Entry to the School Meals Scheme has been confined to DEIS schools in addition to schools identified by the Department of Education as having levels of concentrated disadvantage, meaning that their students would benefit from access to the School Meals Programme.
In March 2022, the Minister for Education announced an extension of the DEIS status to an additional 320 schools from September 2022. In July, I announced that access to the hot school meal option would be extended to the 282 newly-designated DEIS primary schools and to the cold lunch option to the 38 newly-designated DEIS secondary schools from September benefitting some 60,000 children.
This means that since my appointment as Minister for Social Protection, I have increased the number of schools with access to the Hot School Meal option from 37 to over 500.
I am committed to continuing to expand the school meals programme and building further on the significant extension of the programme in recent years. In this regard, I commissioned the evaluation of the school meals programme to review all elements of the programme. The evaluation will also help to inform future decisions around this important programme.
The final report is on schedule to be completed by the end of the year and will be published thereafter.
I trust this clarifies the matter.
