Glenalbyn: Cllrs vote to petition Minister to make funds available

Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Councillors have voted in favour of a motion calling on the Minister for Sport Catherine Martin TD to make it easier for the Glenalbyn Pool Project to obtain Government funding.

The motion was tabled by Fine Gael councillor John Kennedy at July’s county council meeting last week.

“The motion asks Minister Martin to review the awarding guidelines of her department’s Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) to make it more feasible for standalone swimming pool projects such as Glenalbyn Pool to obtain support from the fund,” said Kennedy.

“Regrettably, a previous application for the project in relation to the fund was rejected largely because the Glenalbyn Pool project is not a multi-purpose facility.”

Kennedy said that the LSSIF does not incorporate swimming pool projects, despite their community use.

“Single purpose swimming pools were previously funded by the Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme and it is stated on the gov.ie website that the LSSIF fund is effectively the Government’s successor fund for this previous programme, yet unless swimming pool projects have an extra dimension in terms of accompanying facilities then existing LSSIF departmental guidelines mean those projects are unlikely to get funding support,” he said.

“Minister Martin should review the circumstances under which the previous funding application for Glenalbyn Pool was rejected and ensure that a future, seven-figure funding application for Glenalbyn Pool can be assessed much more favourably by her department.

“The Glenalbyn Pool Project is a long-running saga since closure of the pool in 2013.

“Two factors need focus, the first being the necessity of multi-million funding support from the LSSIF fund, with the second being the need for agreement in principle from Kilmacud Crokes to the project.

“Also during the July 5th meeting, I called for Kilmacud Crokes’ decision-making pathway for the project to proceed over Zoom meetings since the pandemic should not be an obstacle to approval from Kilmacud Crokes being granted.”