Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. As he is aware, the local authority swimming pool programme is administered by my Department. 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. Cork County Council submitted an application on the Dunmanway swimming pool before the closing date for the receipt of such proposals, which was 31 July 2000.

Under the programme a maximum grant of €3.8 million can be obtained for a project. There are four principal stages which must be undertaken by a local authority in developing a swimming pool project. Those are 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 my Department. Grant aid is formally allocated when the tender is approved. The Department's technical advisers, the Office of Public Works, evaluates each stage.

Two proposals were submitted by Cork County Council to my Department in respect of the Dunmanway swimming pool project. The first proposal was for the refurbishment of the existing pool together with an extension to accommodate additional facilities, including a gym. A preliminary report on that proposal was approved in March 2001. The second proposal was for the demolition of the existing facility and a rebuild to incorporate the pool, gym and ancillary facilities. That was received in December 2001. The OPW advised that the second proposal made a convincing case for a replacement pool. However, as Cork County Council envisaged a private company operating and managing the pool, the OPW instructed that the operators of the facility should be sourced and involved prior to contract preparation so that their requirements might be incorporated in the design. The council tendered for operators on two occasions but received only one submission.

On re-examining the matter this year, the council is considering reverting to the original proposal of refurbishing the existing pool and building an extension to accommodate additional facilities, including a gymnasium. The local authority intends to operate the pool using its own employees and may outsource the management of the gym. It has, therefore, instructed JODA Engineering Consultants, the consultants appointed for this project, to update the costs of both proposals with the intention of making a final decision within the next month or so on which proposal to pursue. The council will notify the Department once a final decision has been made. When this decision is made, the Dunmanway project can be progressed by the council.