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

I have relations in Monaghan and the Minister, Deputy Martin, is from the county.

The local authority swimming pool programme, LASPP, provided grant aid towards the capital cost of new swimming pools or the refurbishment of existing pools. To date, 52 pools have been completed and three swimming pool projects remain in the LASPP.

Exchequer support for any new swimming pool is now being provided by the large scale sports infrastructure fund, LSSIF. It was launched in 2018 to provide Exchequer support for larger sports facility projects, including swimming pools, with at least €100 million being made available over the period to 2027. Provisional allocations totalling €77.4 million for 25 projects under stream 2 of the LSSIF were announced on 10 January 2020. On 13 January additional provisional allocations of €5 million for a further seven projects under stream 1 were announced.

Of these 32 projects, eight swimming pool projects have been awarded funding. The evaluation procedures and guidelines of this scheme provide that once provisional allocations are announced, the successful projects will undergo a further process of due diligence. This includes a further review of projects including economic appraisals and feasibility studies. This work is continuing and a priority in the short term is to advance the projects allocated funding in January. There is no process for applications in the current scheme at present. It is planned, however, to review progress of existing grants in 2021. That will decide whether we open the LSSIF in 2021 to include applications for a swimming pool, which I am sure the Deputy will be pursuing at that point in time. The decisions that are made after the review has taken place will dictate whether it is open in 2021.

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