Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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Tá fáilte romhat, an Aire Stáit. This is the second bite of the cherry for Senator Maria Byrne and she has four minutes.

Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State to House. I know that in the past he was unable to attend here due to work reasons and I thank him very much for coming here this morning.

I rise today to raise the issue of the 50 m swimming pool in the University of Limerick and the fact that the Munster swimming team has no place to practice at the moment. The team is being disenfranchised when compared with the Connacht, Ulster and Leinster teams. The Leinster team practices at the National Aquatic Centre and the other teams have access to 50 m pools. In fact, there are only two other 50 m pools in the country, one is located at UCD and the other is located at the National Aquatic Centre.

The pool at the University of Limerick caters to the Munster swimming squad. I know one small part of the pool is missing but other parts must be replaced in order to solve the original problem. There is also quite a cost involved to replace the missing part. It is all about moving the floor. Unfortunately, no competitions could be held in the pool since around October and no repairs have happened to date. I ask the Minister of State to release funding and to take the case on board. A number of teams covering all ages have been disenfranchised by the closure. Recently the Munster national swimming competition had to be cancelled because the pool was not in working order.

I again thank the Minister of State for coming here and I look forward to hearing what he has to say.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Byrne for raising this matter.

As she is aware, the swimming pool programme, as administered by my Department, provides grant aid towards the capital costs of new public swimming pools or the refurbishment of existing public swimming pools. The programme provides for a maximum grant aid of €3.8 million per project.

Four principal stages must be undertaken to develop a swimming pool project. They are as follows: A preliminary report, including a feasibility study; contract documents; tender stage; and, finally, construction stage. The Department's technical adviser evaluates each stage. Projects may not proceed to the next stage until prior approval has been issued by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.

I understand that the 50 m pool at the University of Limerick was opened in January 2002 with the majority of funding being provided by the then Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism. The facility included a pool boom that allows the swimming pool to be segregated into different sizes thus allowing it to be used in multiple formats at the same time.

Swim Ireland has a pool usage agreement with the UL Sport Arena. The agreement gives access to the pool for training and competition. The agency established a full-time performance centre at the facility that ensures swimmers receive 50 m pool access, specialist coaching, gym access and additional support services to help them reach their sporting potential.

I am aware that Swim Ireland first started to highlight the need to upgrade the pool boom some years ago. In 2015, the facility was inspected by engineers who agreed that the best overall solution was to replace the existing boom with a new one. Accordingly, in 2016, UL wrote to Sport Ireland and my Department seeking assistance towards the replacement cost of the boom. Swim Ireland supported the request. It highlighted the fact that the lack of a boom was having an impact on training and competition opportunities for swimmers in the region. The request was considered within my Department. Earlier this year my predecessor, the Minister of State, Deputy Patrick O’Donovan, and the Minister approved a once-off allocation towards the cost of the replacement of the moveable boom in UL's swimming pool. The necessary administrative work has continued in the interim.

Last month, my Department gave approval to UL to proceed to seek tenders for the replacement boom. I understand that it is hoped to have the necessary work completed next year during the summer academic recess thus allowing the continued use of the facility for high-performance swimming and competition.

The sport sector is recognised as having positive social, cultural and health benefits for individuals and broader society. It is an integral part of Government policy to provide funding for such infrastructure.I will check if that timeline can be moved forward, particularly, as the Senator outlined, in light of the impact the lack of a pool boom is having on the facility, on competition, on performance and on activity in the area. I will check if anything can be done with in terms of the timeline.

Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for looking into the matter and coming back with a response. I would appreciate it if he can discover whether the timeline can be moved forward. Children of all ages, from the young to the not so young, have been disenfranchised as a result of the delay. The Department sanctioned the funding. That probably happened around the same time that I originally submitted this Commencement matter because I have heard from a number of the swimmers. However, the problem was, perhaps, that there was silence about it and none of the people involved on the swimming side were informed about what was happening.