Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 166: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the amount of grant aid that has been provided since 1995 to assist the provision of privately owned leisure facilities that include swimming pools; and the corresponding figure for the same period for County Laois. [6318/05]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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Under the terms of the local authority swimming pool programme, any privately owned swimming pool project seeking funding must have the full support of the relevant local authority and is expected to provide a high level of public access at reasonable hours and prices. Responsibility for the programme rested with the then Department of the Environment until 1998 when it was transferred to my Department. Since 1998 an amount of some €11.115 million has been paid to six pool projects which were not owned by local authorities, that is, they were owned by private, voluntary or educational sectors, none of which were in County Laois.

The national lottery-funded sports capital programme, which is administered by my Department, allocates funding to sporting organisations and to voluntary and community organisations throughout the country. No funding has been allocated under the programme since 1995 to assist in the provision of privately owned leisure facilities that include swimming pools.

Under the operational programme for tourism 1994-1999, European regional development fund grants were available to support specialist accommodation-related developments, including the provision of leisure facilities. Details of such grants are available from Fáilte Ireland which administered the grant programme.