Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy Catherine Murphy will be aware, the swimming pools programme was closed some years ago. I have asked my officials to review the position regarding swimming pool projects and discuss the matter with local authorities. I asked a representative of the County and City Managers' Association what local authorities require to advance swimming pool projects. The enhancement programme for swimming pools worked well and saved a number of pools from closure. However, Deputy Murphy is correct that a small number of areas, including Leixlip, do not have a swimming pool. Local authorities are no longer interested in operating swimming pools because they are too costly. I am considering the possibility of opening a limited scheme to enable a number of counties to make an application for funding for a new swimming pool. I will review the matter.

The Deputy will have to admit that the most recent round of funding under the sports capital programme was the fairest ever allocation and the first that did not give rise to media controversy. I allocated funding on a pro ratabasis to ensure every county received a fair share of the overall allocation. When I reviewed the allocations for the past ten years, I noted which counties had done very well, reduced funding to such counties and increased funding to counties that had not done so well. For example, the figures indicated that, on a per capitabasis, funding to counties Carlow and Wicklow amounted to €1 or €2, whereas the equivalent figure for counties Donegal and Kerry was as high as €195 per capita. I wonder why that was the case. I decided not to provide further funding to these counties and instead increase funding to counties that had done badly in previous funding rounds.

When the most recent round of funding under the sports capital programme was announced, journalists immediately tried to find out if County Mayo received a greater allocation than other counties. The county was allocated, pro rata, the funding to which it was entitled, as were all other counties. I did what Dr. John Considine wanted to me to do and when he found no reason to criticise local schemes, he examined the regional schemes. Not every county had a regional scheme, however.

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