Health Minster Criticised For Promise Made To West Wicklow Swimming Pool Campaigners

The Municipal District remains the only one in the county without aquatic facilities for the community of around 26,000.

A draft feasibility study for the pool was presented to a meeting of the Baltinglass Municipal District at Wicklow County Council earlier this year with unanimous support from local officials.

The Council has applied for Stream One Funding from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport in order to fund up to seventy per cent of the plans and drawings for the pool.

The Cathaoirleach of the Blessington Municipal District, councillor Gerry O’Neill has accused the Minister for Health Wicklow TD Simon Harris of misleading campaigners for a swimming pool in West Wicklow, by telling them emphatically that they will have the pool in two years.

At a fundraising event in Russborough House last Saturday, the Minister said that the campaigners will have their new pool by 2021.

However Councillor O’Neill says Minister Harris failed to explain how much it would cost or where the funding would come from, or where the pool would be located.