Ciarán Cannon (Progressive Democrats)

Approximately 16 years ago the people of Loughrea were given a very strong indication that the Government of the day was willing to co-fund the provision of a public swimming pool in that town. At the prompting of the Government and local Fianna Fáil representatives at that time the people of the town engaged in a comprehensive fundraising campaign. I bought one of those £100 tickets, as they were at the time, for me and my family. Some 16 years later the pool remains undelivered and we have arrived at a point where Fianna Fáil uses this as some sort of trump card to be played at every election, local and national, in the Loughrea area, constantly promising that this pool is about to be delivered or, at the most recent general election, that is has been delivered.

In February 2001 Deputy Noel Treacy announced that his Government colleague, Deputy McDaid, then Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, had approved the appointment of consultants by Galway County Council for the preliminary design and construction of the proposed pool. Deputy Treacy also said he was "looking forward to a swim in the warmer waters of the pool in the years ahead". In the weeks running up to the May 2007 general election another announcement was made that the swimming pool had been approved and that €1.7 million was waiting somewhere, about to be allocated for the pool. A very large billboard was erected on the site of the pool proclaiming the pool had been delivered. Deputy Treacy said he was "delighted to have achieved a positive conclusion for this very important project". I stress the word "conclusion".

Two years later, not one cent of that €1.7 million has been delivered to the community of Loughrea. We have been fobbed off over and over again with pathetic excuses about legal difficulties that have arisen. If somebody says he or she was happy to have achieved a "positive conclusion" for a project, one would assume all these legal issues had been resolved back in 2007. I cannot understand why this money still has not been allocated two years later.

We have the legal knowledge available to us in the Houses of the Oireachtas to draft a Bill to guarantee every loan in our State banks and have it passed in 48 hours. If the political will and the intent to deliver this money and pool to the community of Loughrea existed, it would have been done many years ago. I do not believe the political will is there to do that. There is no intent to deliver a pool at any point. The excuses given were simply a smoke screen for an unwillingness on the part of the Government to deliver this money. I hope the Minister, Deputy Mansergh, has something that may encourage me to believe otherwise, but I doubt it.