John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Jerry Buttimer for raising this issue and apologise for the absence of the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Deputy Brennan, as he cannot be in the Chamber this evening. He will hold discussions with the Senator at a later stage.

The local authority swimming pool programme is administered by the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism. The programme provides grant aid towards the capital costs of new public swimming pools or the refurbishment of existing public swimming pools provided by local authorities or by other bodies where the application for capital funding is supported by the local authority. The current round of the programme closed to new applicants on July 2000. No application was received from Cork City Council for the Douglas swimming pool before that closing date.

The programme provides for maximum grant aid of €3.8 million per project. There are four principal stages which must be undertaken by a local authority in developing a swimming pool project, namely, a preliminary report, including feasibility study, contract documents, tender stage and construction stage. Local authorities may not proceed to the next stage of a project until prior approval issues from the Department. Grant aid is formally allocated when the tender is approved and the Department's technical advisers, the Office of Public Works, evaluates each stage.

The policy since 2000 has been to give priority to the completion of the 57 projects within the round. Of these 57 projects, 29 have been completed and 14 are under construction or about to start construction, all of which have been grant aided. Some 14 other projects are at various stages of the programme, with three at tender stage, seven at contract documents stage and four at preliminary report stage.

Cumulative grant expenditure by the Department under the programme from 2000 to the end of this year is anticipated to be €108 million and this grant aid has leveraged total investment of €338 million in public swimming pool facilities. Under the National Development Plan 2007-2013, €184 million has been allocated for the provision of public swimming pools under the local authority swimming pool programme.

My Department is currently completing a value for money and policy review report of the local authority swimming pool programme. It is examining, among other issues, how the programme has worked to date and what changes, if any, are required to ensure its effective and efficient delivery. The report is currently being finalised and it is intended to publish it as soon as possible. Following consideration of the recommendations in the report, it is my intention to launch a new round of the local authority swimming pool programme. When the programme is re-opened, it will be open to all local authorities, including Cork City Council in respect of the Douglas swimming pool, to submit applications under the terms that will apply.

Since 2001, through responses to representations, parliamentary questions and meetings with council officials, it was made clear the Douglas pool could not be grant aided under the current round of the local authority swimming pool programme as no application was submitted before the deadline. In April 2005, the then Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism advised a delegation from Cork City Council, including the then Mayor of Cork, this was the position. However, the then Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, added that an application for grant aid would be considered under the next round of the programme.

In summary, no application was received by the Department from Cork City Council in respect of the Douglas swimming pool before the closing date of the current round of the local authority swimming pool programme. When the programme is re-opened, it will be open to Cork City Council to submit an application in respect of the Douglas swimming pool under the terms that will apply.

I thank the Senator for raising this issue and assure him that this Government will continue to improve our record of achievement in upgrading the stock of local public swimming pools.