Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Clifford-Lee for raising this topic, with which I have a great deal of sympathy. Swimming pools are an essential part of a child's education and upbringing. It would be every Minister's ambition to have a swimming pool in every populated area. That is not quite possible, but we are doing our very best to achieve it.

The local authority swimming pool programme, which is administered by my Department, provides grant aid towards the capital costs of new public swimming pools or the refurbishment of existing pools. The programme provides for maximum grant aid of €3.8 million per project. The four principal stages which must be undertaken by a local authority in developing a swimming pool project are: preliminary report stage, including feasibility study; contract document stage; tender stage; and construction stage.

Regarding the provision of a swimming pool in north Fingal, a proposal for a new pool in Skerries, County Dublin, was originally included in the 2000 round of the local authority swimming pool programme. The Department approved the preliminary report in January 2001. As no contract documents or tender reports were ever received for Skerries, no grant was approved for that project. The Skerries project was planned as a public private partnership. In March 2009, the Department received a letter from Fingal County Council stating that this proposal was terminated due to difficulties with the residential element of the proposed scheme and that the new priority for Fingal County Council was to locate a pool in Balbriggan. In April 2009, Fingal County Council forwarded a preliminary report for the proposed Balbriggan pool. As the Senator has outlined, the proposal was for Balbriggan Rugby Football Club, in conjunction with a private operator, to build a swimming pool on the club's grounds at Balrothery. It was proposed that the pool would be managed by the swimming pool operator, which would put finance in place for the development.

The OPW approved the preliminary report for the Balbriggan proposal in May 2009, subject to a minor modification and subject to the council and the Department being satisfied that the tender process would be transparent and fair. The council was asked to consider issues of procurement and state aid to a private operator and to ensure all relevant EU directives would be adhered to. I understand that due to difficulties in adhering to these requirements, no further progress was made with the project at the Balbriggan site.

Accordingly, my Department wrote to Fingal County Council in January 2016 to raise concerns about the delay and to ask the council to consider withdrawing this project from the local authority swimming pool programme. The letter stated that if Fingal County Council agreed to the withdrawal of Balbriggan swimming pool from the local authority swimming pool programme, it may be possible for Fingal County Council and Balbriggan Rugby Football Club to receive a sports capital programme allocation instead. Fingal County Council agreed to the voluntary withdrawal of the Balbriggan project from the local authority swimming pool programme and the Department formally notified the council of its removal in April 2016.Fingal County Council subsequently applied for a special sports capital programme allocation for Balbriggan RFC. The application must meet all of the usual terms and conditions of the programme and funding is capped at €500,000. I understand the application is under ongoing consideration in my Department, with Balbriggan RFC recently having received approval to go to tender.

With regard to swimming pools, the projects remaining in the current local authority swimming pool programme are those in Castlebar, Buncrana, Edenderry and Lucan, all of which are at various stages. The priority in 2018 is to progress these projects.

With regard to the future funding of swimming pools, the issue the Senator raises, the national development plan contains a commitment to establish a new "Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund", with at least €100 million available in the coming years. My officials are in the process of drafting the terms and conditions of the new fund and engaging with relevant stakeholders in that regard. An announcement on when applications will be accepted will be made once the terms and conditions have been finalised. It will be open to all local authorities, including Fingal County Council, to submit an application for any suitable project under the terms that will apply. In addition, the upcoming national sports policy which I expect to be considered by the Government in the coming weeks, with a view to its publication shortly thereafter, will include a specific focus on how the Government should fund sports facilities, including swimming pools, in the years ahead.

I hope this clarifies the current position. I thank the Senator for raising the issue.