Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I know the Minister is fairly familiar with the swimming pool programme for a variety of reasons. As he rightly pointed out, the last round closed for applications in 2000. It is on the national primary school curriculum that every child should have swimming lessons, so to have to wait seven or eight years or even longer to even apply for the scheme clearly shows the problems with it.

The maximum amount available is €3.8 million but the average payment out of the allocated money is less than €2 million per pool. A pool costs about €10 million to build, so the cap is too low and too little is allocated. The timescale is far too long. How can it be that a scheme which closed in 2000 still has not re-opened, despite a significant need? Even with the pools around the country, many must virtually be levelled and started over again.

There is a major problem that must be considered. How can it be that it has taken seven years to deal with 57 projects? I cannot remember how much has been spent on these projects but I know €184 million is allocated for the next seven years. How much of the money allocated for the next seven years will go to applications from the last seven years? There is clearly not enough money if there is an overhang, and the applications made in 2000 still have not been dealt with as we head to 2008. The Minister must look at the problem.

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