Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The objective of the School Meals 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. Following the expansion of the programme in recent years, some 2,600 schools and organisations, covering 443,000 children are now eligible for funding.

The Hot School Meal option of the programme was introduced in 2019 and is currently solely available to primary schools. Since my appointment as Minister for Social Protection, I have increased the number of schools with access to the Hot School Meal option from an initial pilot of 30 schools to a position where over 2,000 primary schools now eligible to receive a hot meal.

A total of 316,046 children are eligible for hot school meals with 265,751 children now benefitting from the scheme to date.

Details of all schools in Dublin, currently availing of hot school meals for the 2023/2024 school year, can be found in the tabular statement below.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Primary Schools located in Dublin in receipt of hot school meals to date as of 28th June 2024