At the recent South Dublin County Council Budget meeting, Fine Gael (FG) Councillors put forward a proposal to ring-fence funding to fix the moving floors in the swimming pools in Tallaght and Clondalkin. No other political party supported their proposal leaving the FG members in total disbelief. The pool’s booms have been dogged by technical issues which have resulted in the 25m pools not being swim-able to it’s full 25m.
“We all know there are serious problems with the Tallaght and Clondalkin swimming pools. For months on-end, we have been told by the Council that they are sourcing specialist parts from the UK and will repair the boom in Clondalkin but there’s radio-silence when it comes to Tallaght. During the 2022 Budget, the Councillors proposed ring-fencing additional funding to ensure that these repairs actually happen. We were stunned when Sinn Fein, Green Party and Fianna Fail Councillors voted against allocating funding towards the fixing of our pools,” said Cllr. Brian Lawlor.
Tallaght Councillor for Fine Gael, Baby Pereppadan, said that “Swimmers in both Tallaght and Clondalkin have been hugely inconvenienced by these issues, which have been going on for years now. Two years ago, at the request of Fine Gael Councillors the Council established an annual maintenance contract to prevent these issues continuing, and yet here we are still waiting for the pools to be fixed. People are fed up at this stage, we just want our pools fixed and we are very disappointed that this isn’t a priority for other political parties.”
In 2016 the Tallaght Swimming Pool required a new boom to be designed and installed. A year later the mechanical system which enables the hoisting of the pool floor failed and the boom was damaged. The Council took the decision not to invest in the repair of the boom as it was too costly, and as a result the 25m pool has not been fully functional to its purpose-built length since. In 2017 the boom in Clondalkin Swimming Pool malfunctioned and there have been intermittent maintenance issues ongoing since then. Specialist parts required to resolve the latest issue, the replacement of hydraulic control valves which had become blocked by congealed fluid, were, according to the Council, ordered in August but no time-frame for delivery is available.
“What we’re being told is that the part for Clondalkin was ordered in August but no one knows when it will arrive and when the works will be scheduled for. We’re also being told that the Tallaght repairs are a bigger job and will be more expensive. We in Fine Gael were concerned that financial constraints were delaying things which is why we put forward a proposal to allocate €90,000 towards fixing these two pools but Sinn Fein, the Greens and Fianna Fail seem convinced that this is not a budget problem and did not support our motion. We in Fine Gael just want to get to the bottom of what the issue is and resolve it because the people we represent want our pools fixed,” concluded Cllr. Brian Lawlor.
