Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 330: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the details of grants available for the development of swimming pools by local authorities; and the details of all such grants made in the past year for which figures are available, to include the local authority's name, amount of grant, total project cost and other relevant details. [24415/09]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The information requested by the Deputy is below in Tabular format.

Under the Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme, which is administered by my Department and which has been closed to new applicants since July 2000, grant aid to a maximum of €3.8 million is provided to Local Authorities towards the capital costs of new swimming pools or the refurbishment of existing pools, subject in both cases to the total grant not exceeding 80% of the eligible cost of the project or, in the case of projects located in disadvantaged areas, 90% of the eligible cost. Proposals must comply with the standards set out in the Department's "Procedures for the Planning, Approval and Financing of Swimming Pools and Technical Guidelines."

Under the Guidelines there are four principal stages in a swimming pool project following the submission of a feasibility study. These, in order of progress, are: Preliminary Report; Contract Documents; Tender and Construction. Grant-aid is allocated only when tenders have been approved for the project and is capped at the time of allocation. The Department and its technical advisors, the Office of Public Works, evaluate each stage and local authorities cannot proceed to the next stage of a project unless prior approval issues from the Department of Arts, Sport & Tourism.

Where a project is being undertaken by an organisation other than a local authority, the proposal must be considered, supported and submitted by the relevant local authority. Before supporting a project, the local authority would have to be satisfied that the proposal was viable, that the balance of funding required to complete the project was available and that the project, when completed, would have a satisfactory level of public access. The Local Authority is responsible for making satisfactory arrangements for the management and maintenance of the facility.

The policy since 2000 has been to give priority to the completion of the 57 projects within the current round. Of these 57 projects, 43 have been completed and are open to the public, 4 are under construction, all of which have been grant aided. Ten other projects are at various stages of the Programme: 7 at contract documents stage and 3 at preliminary report stage.

Cumulative grant expenditure by the Department under the programme from 2000 to the end of May this year is €135.5m and this grant aid has leveraged total investment of some €399.9m in public swimming pool facilities. Under the National Development Plan 2007 – 2013, €184m has been allocated for the provision of public swimming pools under the Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme, with €12.4m provided in the Revised Estimates for 2009.

The Department has completed and published a Value for Money and Policy Review Report of the Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme. The Report examined, among other things, how the programme has worked to date and what changes, are required to ensure its effective and efficient delivery. The Report was published in 2008. The terms and conditions of any new round of the Programme will be devised taking into account the recommendations of the Report.

However, given the current budgetary constraints, it is not intended to launch a new round of the Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme at this time. The matter will be reviewed again later this year.

Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme