Almost €2.5m splashed on Limerick swimming pool

ALMOST €2.5m has been spent on maintaining and renewing a Limerick swimming pool in the last two years.

Askeaton Swimming Pool closed its doors to the public mid-way through 2023 to allow vital works at the facility to take place.

Now, it has emerged that a total of €2,476,589.98 has been spent on the pool since 2023.

And it has sparked a call from one councillor for the local authority to “cut its losses” and place more focus on sporting facilities in the county town of Newcastle West.

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Independent councillor Jerome Scanlan made the call after it was his question at January’s council meeting which led to the disclosure of the spend in Askeaton.

Details presented by administrative officer Louise Magner to the councillor revealed that in the year the pool closed temporarily, 2023, €510,190.81 was spent on renewal and maintenance costs.

Last year, that figure was €1,585,293.75.

And in the first month of this yea, €381,105.31 was spent on the facility.

The works - funded in part by government grants - involve the upgrading of the plant room, flood defence works, replacement of the mechanical and electrical equipment and the installation of  energy efficient heating systems.

Cllr Scanlan also sought a breakdown of the subvention the pool received between 2018 and 2022, its last full year of operation.

He was told the figure stood at €630,000.

Cllr Scanlan believes the Askeaton pool will never be viable, and efforts should be made instead to build in Newcastle West.

“In Newcastle West, we have a fantastic facility here in the athletics track. You have the football ground, the rugby, you have the athletics track. All of those participants will use the facilities and a pool in Newcastle West. Askeaton is anything but convenient for any of those would-be users. They may as well go home and have a shower to be blunt about it," Cllr Scanlan, who is based in Newcastle West, said.

But the leader of the Adare-Rathkeale district where Askeaton is located, Cllr Adam Teskey rejected the claims.

"Askeaton has been the home of swimming in county Limerick for years upon years upon years," he said.

"I think it's regrettable he would play one community off against another, when there is little over 12 miles separating both towns. It's a dangerous precedent to be setting one town against another," the Fine Gael man said.