Councillor William Carey has expressed his concern about the delay in reopening of leisure complexes belonging to SDCC. The centres in Lucan, Tallaght and Clondalkin are run by a management company on behalf of SDCC and have failed to re-open in line with government policy that they should be allowed to.
According to Cllr Carey, “following a discussion I had with the Chief executives office, South County Dublin Leisure Services Ltd are claiming they are short of funding, despite the fact they have adequate financial deposits in the bank”. Cllr Carey added that he is concerned about the competence of the management of the centres and asks if these issues predate the Covid-19 crisis. Many people have paid membership fees for the year and now find themselves been locked out of their facility.
Cllr Carey called upon SDCC to ensure the speedily opening of their centres and to carry out a thorough investigation as to the reasons for the delay in re-opening and if necessary appoint a new management structure to run the facilities on their behalf. Cllr Carey stated that it’s imperative that these centres are re-opened as soon as possible. These centres are very much an important part of the community and play an important social and sporting role that feeds into the mental health of the wider community. Any problems faced by the management company must be addressed going forward with SDCC but the immediate challenge must be to have the centres re-opened.
