Department support required for pool

A proposal for a pool in west Wicklow cannot proceed without the support of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.

Members of Wicklow County Council were warned at their March meeting that the large scale of the project and its cost made the Department’s involvement critical.

Councillor John Mullen (FF) stated there was a ‘need to keep going’ on proposals for a swimming pool in west Wicklow. Other councillors also voiced their support for the proposal.

Among those, Cllr Joe Behan (Ind) highlighted that the pool’s ‘importance to the community’. Cllr Peir Leonard (Ind) said she ‘thought west was neglected a lot of the time’.

Cllr Avril Cronin (FG) asked if a report on the funding application could be provided to councillors in order to identify areas where the application fell short. This could be important for future applications.

Cllr Gerry O’Neill (Ind) called for work to progress on the Blessington Town Plan, suggesting the pool could form part of a leisure complex.

Wicklow County Council Chief Executive Frank Curran said he was ‘surprised’ that the application for fees of €5,000 was turned down as the Department had been in contact with the local authority twice for further information, Due to the ‘large scale’ of the project, the council ‘can’t do it without them’.

‘The large scale information team will be coming around again. We need to focus on it, see where it went wrong.’

Mr Curran added that the estimated cost of the project was around €10 million. He said the council would continue to work on the project and suggested that the swimming pool could be included as part of a ‘bigger development’ such as a leisure complex. Mr Curran said the Department may have greater interest in this.