Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It was around 2000 when the original list of swimming pools was opened up, and each local authority was asked to nominate two locations for swimming pools. This is the first time it has really been opened up since. It is there in theory, but I wonder about the good use of public money. It has to be there in practice, but the amount of grant aid is not sufficient to build a swimming pool. It requires matching funds. Swimming pools do not make money; they are expensive to run and the energy efficiency side of it is very important from this point of view. Many of the pools do not materialise, and it strikes me it is a terrible waste of money to give the impression a scheme is available but we do not actually see new swimming pools emerging in some cases, or it takes years for them to be built because they must find the matching funding. I absolutely support the need, but I question the value of this approach because if the local authority will not put up matching funding then we will not get the swimming pool. There is a constant round of disappointment because there are announcements without follow through. Areas most affected by this are those which do not have facilities to begin with that can be expanded on, such as my area and the areas of the Chairman and Deputy Cassells, which are growing areas. If we are going to look at some of these initiatives, can we look at them from the point of view of whether what is being proposed is viable, or is this something that really should be looked at from another committee's perspective?