Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

136. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the steps Monaghan County Council should take to secure funding for a swimming pool in Carrickmacross. [34630/25]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

My question is more of an appeal to the Minister and the Minister of State to work with Monaghan County Council, the local community and all elected representatives to help ensure that we can deliver a swimming pool complex in the town of Carrickmacross.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank Deputy Carthy. As he knows, capital support for new swimming pools and the refurbishment of existing pools continues to be provided by the Department through the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF, which to date has allocated €28.9 million to nine swimming pools throughout the country. Investment in a swimming pool for Monaghan, as the Deputy knows, is a matter for the local authority in the first instance. Once the next round of the LSSIF opens, Monaghan County Council will be eligible to apply for funding.

Ireland’s first national swimming strategy, which was published in August 2024, sets out a vision to provide everyone in our country with an opportunity to swim. It includes an action plan containing more than 50 actions across five thematic strands, focusing on providing improved facilities, increasing access for people with disabilities and improving the culture of inclusion, better coaching supports, increasing safety awareness and providing a pathway that allows for the nurturing and development of potential high performers.

Responsibility for the delivery of the strategy’s action plan will be shared across Departments, State agencies and other key stakeholders, including local authorities. Sport Ireland has established an oversight group of key stakeholders to give leadership, policy direction, prioritisation and mobilisation of resources to support, monitor and measure the strategy’s implementation. My current focus is on ensuring project delivery under the first two rounds of the LSSIF, from 2019 and 2024. There have only ever been two rounds. I would expect, and it is our objective, that the period until the next round of the LSSIF will be shorter than the period between the previous two. There were five years between the previous two. There was a significant gap in funding infrastructure until that large-scale sport infrastructure fund was introduced. It will be subject to our capital allocations within the national development plan. Within a much shorter timeframe, we hope to be able to run a new round. Monaghan County Council should work to have its preparation in place in order to be able to apply whenever it opens.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I urge him to ensure that the new round of funding is opened as quickly as possible. There has long been a demand for a swimming pool among the people of Carrickmacross. When the previous local authority swimming pool programme was in place, there was a substantial fundraising drive in the town but it did not result in a swimming pool.

That was largely, to be quite frank about it, due to a bias within the county council executive at that time. Thankfully, we now have a situation where all partners are on board, including the council executive, the members of the local authorities and particularly the local community and sporting organisations. Thanks to the efforts of Councillor Colm Carthy and the wider areas, we recently had a pop-up pool in the town for a number of months. The period of time it is going to be there has been extended because the demand for it has been so great. There is clearly a huge surge in support for swimming activities. Carrickmacross needs this facility. Will the Minister of State be proactive in supporting towns like Carrickmacross to deliver these facilities?

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The first requirement is for the county council to be proactive. While I certainly will be proactive in trying to ensure we secure funding and deliver swimming pools throughout the country, we will only be able to deal with applications that are on our desk. It is highly likely we will not be able to deal with every application, given the level of demand, but we will be doing our best to see real development in this regard.

There is no doubt there are significant gaps in swimming pool infrastructure throughout the country. Swimming is the only national sport at the moment that has a dedicated national strategy, the national swimming strategy, which was published approximately one year ago. As part of that strategy, one of the action points was to develop a sense and audit of the swimming pool facilities across the country. Swim Ireland is undertaking that audit. It is assessing where swimming pool facilities and the most significant gaps are. That will inform how we step out to try to address that. We want to get to a situation where everyone has the opportunity to be able to access facilities and learn to swim. We want people to be able to participate in swimming throughout their life, both in Monaghan and throughout the country.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am pleased to report that Monaghan County Council is now being proactive. As I mentioned, the pop-up pool has been a huge success. A feasibility study has been conducted by the local authority, which shows and reinforces that the demand is there.

The reason there is a national strategy for swimming is that it is much more than a sport. In fact, people involved in every sport benefit from utilising swimming facilities. There is also a recognition that this is an amenity. Carrickmacross is a growing town that has faced challenges in recent years, not least due its growth but also because many of the town’s amenities have been delivered from within the community. We have not seen the type of Government investment that other towns the size of Carrickmacross have received. It would send a very powerful message if we were to deliver the sod-turning on a swimming pool complex in Carrickmacross within the lifetime of this Government. I again urge the Minister of State to work with Monaghan County Council. While it has a role it needs to play, I ask him to be proactive in opening a round of funding that Monaghan County Council can apply for to make this project happen.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

As the Deputy knows, we had a round recently in which almost 30 projects across the country were grant-aided under the large-scale support infrastructure fund, LSSIF. The focus on the short term is to work with all of those applications that were successful in the recent round, as well as with a good number from 2019, to ensure that they are progressing, that funding is getting drawn down and that we see those facilities built. Some swimming pools are a part of that.

We hope to have the next round in a shorter timeframe than the five-year gap between the last two rounds. It remains to be seen what that timeframe will be. I encourage Monaghan County Council to ensure it gets its preparations in place to be in a position to apply at that point. In the meantime, I will be working with Sport Ireland and Swim Ireland to get a full assessment as to where the gaps are across the country. We will then look at how to ensure we get as much funding as possible to develop swimming pools throughout the country and open up applications in order that Monaghan County Council and other councils will be able to apply for pools. We will look to see where we can plug gaps to ensure everyone gets the opportunity to swim, particularly young people. It is about them having that opportunity earlier in their lives to be able to learn to swim in order that they can continue to participate and avail of it throughout their lifespans.