Free school meals: NI 2021 holiday scheme 'would cost more than £17m'

Providing free school meals during the school holidays in 2021 would cost more than £17m, the Department of Education (DE) has said.

A spokesperson said it would bid for the funding if the "executive decides this is appropriate".

Payments to those eligible for free school meals were made over the summer and half-term holidays in 2020.

Footballer Marcus Rashford has led calls for support to be provided during holiday periods in England.

Manchester United and England striker Marcus Rashford has led calls for support in England

In Northern Ireland, families of about 97,000 children received payments of £27 every fortnight per child instead of free meals over the 2020 summer holidays.

The executive also decided to provide those payments over the extended half-term break in October, at a cost of around £1.4m.

It is not yet clear if the payments will be provided over the Christmas school break in 2020.

However, the DE has already estimated how much it would cost to provide eligible families with similar payments to cover the cost of meals over the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays in 2021.

It has highlighted these costs to the Department of Finance.

"The estimated cost of providing payments during those holiday periods is £17.6m per annum," a departmental spokesperson told BBC News NI.

"The Department of Education will continue to bid to the Department of Finance to cover the costs of any holiday food scheme for the future, should the minister and executive decide this is appropriate."

"This is contingent on proposals put forward by Department for Communities on wider food poverty/holiday hunger initiatives and subject to affordability and any decisions by the executive on those initiatives."

'Real need'

The vice-chair of Stormont's education committee, Sinn Féin's Karen Mullan, raised the issue of holiday hunger with DE officials at a hearing on Wednesday.

Ms Mullan urged the executive to make payments to families at Christmas on a similar basis to Halloween and to do the same during school holidays next year.

"We just need the funding to be able to do it," she said.

"I have asked our executive team to get a Christmas payment like Halloween and then work it into next year's budget.

"It's really good that the Department of Education are on the same page and see a real need."

The department also confirmed it is seeking funding for a new scheme to address period poverty in schools in 2021.

There is concern that some girls miss days at school because they cannot afford sanitary products.

There is no Northern Ireland-wide scheme to provide girls with free sanitary products, but there are some schools who benefit from initiatives like the Red Box Project.

In a statement, the department said it had developed a business case setting out options to address the issue of period poverty within schools.

"The business case is with the Department of Finance for consideration," the DE said.

"If approved, the department will seek executive agreement to fund the scheme given that the issue of 'period poverty' is wider than the Department of Education alone."

The governments in England, Scotland and Wales already run schemes to provide free period products for schools.