David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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187. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the ways she is supporting the provision of new swimming pool facilities across the country following publication of the National Swimming Strategy; her Department’s policy in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45491/24]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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On Monday 4 November, Minister Martin and I announced the second round of funding allocations under the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). This follows the first LSSIF round of allocations announced in January 2020.

The total amount of grants awarded under this round is €173 million, benefiting 35 individual projects. With this announcement, the cumulative investment from the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund since 2020 now reaches €297 million.

A wide range of sporting disciplines will benefit under this LSSIF round, including swimming and water-based sports. In parallel, though outside of the LSSIF, funding towards design costs will be allocated to swimming pool projects in Buncrana and Mullingar, to assist the projects in their development. This has been done given the strategic importance of developing swimming pool infrastructure, in line with the recently-published National Swimming Strategy.