Swimming Pools
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-07
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Joanna Byrne (SF), Louth

Ireland has only public pool per 81,000 people. That is a significant deficit compared with other nations like Scotland, which has one per 14,000 people. The Government, like previous Governments, has acknowledged the problem but there is no viable plan to resolve it. The Minister of State has accepted the Swim Ireland report, a pool within reach. That remains a distant reality amid critical swimming infrastructure gaps. There is just no movement in resolving the issues. This is not tomorrow's problem. There is not enough swimming infrastructure to sustain the current levels of participation, let alone plan for the future.
Currently, swimming infrastructure in Ireland is almost entirely in private pools. That means increased cost for clubs, participants and the parents of children who want to swim. It also means very early or late night swim times for clubs and competitors due to the sharing of facilities. All of this needs to be addressed. We need a research-based approach to building pools and we need to deliver them throughout the State. We need to support local authorities in an endeavour to deliver this as well. Action plans like the one the Minister of State mentioned provide everybody with an opportunity to swim. It is just not a reality. If it is, it is at an extensive cost to those who are participating this sport.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-07