John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

I hope to announce the new swimming pool programme in the next couple of months. Applications in that regard will then be invited from various towns and cities. The applications will be individually examined because each applicant will be required to submit a preliminary report. The OPW and the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism must be satisfied as to the need, feasibility and viability of each application as is the case in regard to sports capital funding. The population of a particular town or city will be important in considering whether additional facilities are required. These factors are considered in the context of the criteria laid down. I reiterate that projects are not simply plucked out of the air willy nilly. Each project is assessed on its merits and benchmarked against the relevant criteria.

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