Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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404. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to provide a schedule of each swimming pool in receipt of public funding since 2020. [42789/24]

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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The National Sports Policy, which was published in 2018, provided for the establishment of a Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). The aim of the LSSIF is to provide Exchequer support for larger sports facility projects where the Exchequer investment would be greater than the maximum amount available under the Community Sport Facilities Fund (formerly the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme).

The first call for proposals under the LSSIF closed in 2019 with applications confined to local authorities and National Governing Bodies of Sport. New swimming pool projects and the refurbishment of existing swimming pools were eligible to apply for LSSIF grant funding subject to published guidelines and regulations. All applications were assessed in accordance with the published Evaluation Procedures and Guidelines with the first allocations announced in January 2020.

Eight swimming related projects were allocated total grant funding under LSSIF of €19,950,592 as follows;

1. Sligo: Waterpoint Aqua Park – Allocated €300,000.

2. Kilkenny: The Watershed Development – Allocated €2,171,875.

3. Limerick: Askeaton Pool and Leisure – Allocated €1,265,750

4. Wicklow: Wicklow Swimming Pool and Leisure Centre – Allocated €1,796,600

5. Louth: Dundalk Leisure Centre – Allocated €300,000

6. Galway: Galway Regional Aquatic and Fitness Centre – Allocated €8,003,415

7. Dublin: Samuel Beckett Civic Campus Phase 2 – Allocated €5,650,000

8. Laois: Portarlington Leisure Centre Swimming Pool – Allocated €462,952

Earlier this year, Minister Martin and I announced funding of up to €120 million under the new 2024 round of the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). Assessment of applications is well advanced and I hope to announce allocations under this latest round of LSSIF in the coming period.

Prior to the establishment of the LSSIF, funding for swimming pools was provided through the Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme. Payments made under that programme since 2020 are as follows:

University of Limerick (UL) €387,450

South Dublin County Council (Lucan Swimming Pool) €3,207,349

Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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405. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to provide a schedule of each swimming pool in that is open to the public in the State. [42790/24]

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Neither I, my Department nor Sport Ireland has responsibility for maintaining a schedule of swimming pools open to the public, and neither is such a schedule known to me elsewhere.

The current landscape of swimming pool facilities in Ireland is complex and disparate and has a diversity of management and operational arrangements, including local authorities, private operators, local community groups and schools and colleges. The majority of pools in Ireland are privately owned by hotels and companies in the health, leisure and fitness sector.

The representative body for the leisure industry - Ireland Active - has previously estimated that there are over 400 swimming pools, both public and private, in operation in Ireland.

I was proud to launch Ireland’s first-ever National Swimming Strategy earlier this year, which sets out a vision to provide everyone in our country with an opportunity to swim. The public consultation that informed the Strategy’s development suggested that existing swimming pool stock is insufficient and as a result, a key focus of the Strategy is on providing improved facilities.

There is a specific action in the strategy to complete an in depth analysis of swimming pool provision within Ireland with particular reference to identifying gaps in provision and the environmental sustainability of facilities.

Swim Ireland, the National Governing Body for swimming, is currently undertaking an analysis of the type and nature of swimming pool ownership in the country and will publish a report outlining same in the coming period.

The deputy may also wish to note that Sport Ireland’s Get Ireland Active Digital Database of Sport and Recreational Amenities may be of assistance as regards the location of swimming pools in Ireland. This database, which is under continuing development, brings together the collective resources of the Government of Ireland, Sport Ireland, local authorities, state agencies, local sports partnerships, and Irish sport’s national governing bodies, to capture all sports facilities and places for people to be active in Ireland in one free, convenient, and comprehensive website. The database can be found at the following link: