Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree. Part of what we fund every year, through funds from dormant accounts, and what we are trying to do in the context of our Sport for All approach is ensure that there is inclusion across all sports, including swimming. All providers should be continuing or strengthening what they were doing prior to the onset of Covid-19, especially for people with disabilities. They should be ensuring that all activities are provided in an inclusive way. A key part of the national sports policy and the sports action plan, as I said, is to develop a new swimming strategy. As Deputy Richmond said, swimming is a vital life skill and one we have an increasing demand for in the context of the younger demographics of our population. It is a life skill that allows people to participate and be active in an activity from a young age all the way through to and then during retirement. We are cognisant of the need to ensure we have ongoing development of swimming pool infrastructure, as well as ensuring that is provided in an inclusive and affordable way. We will work this through with the Deputy and others. We are keen to ensure that we deliver a national swimming strategy this year and we are working that through with Swim Ireland.

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