Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When I was appointed Minister of State for sport, I was deeply conscious of the number of actions that needed to be done as part of the programme for Government. This is one very important action. I have made sure that it has happened. These things take time but it has to happen.

Swimming pools also take time to build. When I arrived at the Department, I saw a budget line of €3 million for a swimming pool fund. It may have been more. That budget was granted nearly 20 years ago. It has not been done for various reasons, one of which is local authorities are not prioritising it. If I were to give a simple answer as to why there is no swimming pool in Bandon, for example, it is because Cork County Council decided it is not a priority. Someone said it was not going to do one there. We have changed sports capital to allow for swimming pool renovations. It is not the most attractive thing politically to give money for the stuff you do not see at the back, but it is essential to keep swimming pools open and up to date.

We have the large scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF. I am sure there are some swimming pool applications as part of that. There were previously, but some of the major projects have not been developed by the local authorities that applied for the funding. There have been significant multimillions in funding, including in County Galway where there was a major swimming pool plan, but it has not happened. Someone will have to take responsibility for that. We give the money. We have awarded lots of money and we want to do more of that. I certainly hope that some of the swimming projects in the current LSSIF come through. We want to fund swimming facilities. We acknowledge that there are gaps. There is a lot of work to do. Local authorities will have to take responsibility, as they used to. They come knocking on our doors looking for funding and when we give it, they should spend it.