21 February 2009
Minister Sargent Welcomes News that North Dublin will have a Swimming Pool
Commenting on the news that funding remains safe for the development of a full-sized, publicly accesible swimming pool for Dublin North, Minister Sargent had this to say. “I am delighted that there will be a swimming pool available to the public of the North County. Whilst I realise that not everyone will be happy with the proposed location, having the facility somewhere in the area is better than not having it at all.”
Minister Sargent further explained “despite the huge effort by the committee in Skerries, Fingal County Council were not prepared to provide capital funding without the Skerries swimming pool committee providing €2m towards the project. As the committee were unfortunately not able to attain this demanding target the project was set to loose the €3.8m grant from the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism. When it became clear that this level of funding was to be lost to the North County and that it would be possible to include a publicly available swimming pool in the Balbriggan Rugby Club development, I intervened with Minister Martin Cullen to ensure that the €3.8m would not be lost to the area. The Balbriggan project was 3 years in the making and was already subject to public scrutiny.”
The new pool will now be developed at the site of the Balbriggan Rugby Club. The location of the proposed Skerries swimming pool was the Ballast Pit. “Public transport and access to the swimming pool will be vital“, continued Minister Sargent. “My colleague, Cllr Stephen Kilgallon on Balbriggan Town Council is working on getting better public transport facilities between Skerries and Balbriggan that would include servicing the new swimming pool.”
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