Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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158. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the status of the swimming pool grant; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37691/20]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme (LASPP)  provides grant aid towards the capital costs of new swimming pools or the refurbishment of existing pools. To date 52 pools have been completed and three swimming pool projects (Lucan, Buncrana and Edenderry) remain.Exchequer support for any new swimming pools is now being provided under the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF).  

The LSSIF was launched in 2018 to provide Exchequer support for larger sports facility projects including swimming pools with at least €100m being made available over the period to 2027.  Provisional allocations totalling €77.4m for 25 projects under Stream 2 (construction) of the LSSIF were announced on 10 January 2020. On  13th January additional provisional allocations of €5m for a further 7 projects under Stream1 (design) of the LSSIF were announced. Of these 32 grants, 8 swimming pool projects have been awarded funding. 

The evaluation procedures and guidelines for the LSSIF provide that once provisional allocations are announced, the successful projects will undergo a further process of due diligence. This process includes a further review of projects including economic appraisals and feasibility studies as appropriate to comply with the Public Spending Code. This work is continuing and the priority in the short term is on advancing the projects allocated funding in January. While it is not proposed to open the LSSIF for new applications at present, it is planned to review progress on existing grants in 2021 when the question of whether or not it would be appropriate to seek new applications will be considered. 

In regard to the special fund of €2.5 million announced as part of the July Stimulus to support the reopening of publicly accessible swimming pools, this will be distributed to swimming pools through an open and transparent application process administered by Ireland Active (the association for leisure, health and fitness in Ireland). A Steering Group of Sport Ireland, Swim Ireland and Ireland Active has been established to oversee, assess and monitor the process.

I understand that the COVID-19 Swimming Pool Grant scheme closed for applications on Monday 2 November. It is expected, at this point, to communicate the outcome of the application process in early December, dependent on the volume of applications received.