Cork town seeking public swimming pool has seen ‘no progress in 30 years’

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

Efforts to develop a public swimming pool in Midleton have made ‘absolutely no progress’ in the past three decades, a local councillor has said, as a public petition to build one in the East Cork town gains momentum.

Speaking at this week’s meeting of the East Cork Municipal District (MD), Cllr Rory Cocking said “I learned to swim 30 years ago in Fermoy and that still has not changed. Children locally are still being bussed from East Cork to Fermoy to Youghal or to Cobh to learn, either with their parents or through school. And in 30 years, there has been absolutely no progress made in that regard.”

Cllr Cocking put forward a motion at the meeting calling on the MD to explore central government funding streams and to identify a suitable site for a public pool in Midleton. The Fine Gael councillor brought forward a similar motion in March.

Responding to the motion, Cork County Council officials said the local authority is currently reviewing the business model of its existing swimming pools. “We recognise the significant benefits of swimming pools to the communities served. However, they incur substantial operational and maintenance costs to the council and we are obliged to ensure these facilities are managed as effectively as possible.”

“It is hoped that the preparation of a Joint City and County Sports Plan will go to tender before the end of the year and this will assess the scope of existing facilities and will seek to identify future needs.” The council added that it will “explore possibilities for interim options” in the Midleton area but didn’t say what those options are.

An online petition to get a public swimming pool in Midleton has gained 1,700 signatures in the three weeks since it was set up and the organisers have submitted a document to the council calling for equitable public swimming provision in East Cork.

“Midleton, the largest urban area in Cork County without a public pool, lacks infrastructure for swimming education and accessibility. Over 22,000 residents, including 6,000 schoolchildren, currently face barriers to learning essential life-saving skills. Government funds for community pools are currently available and will be reallocated if East Cork does not apply. Comparable towns—such as Mallow and Fermoy—already benefit from such infrastructure,” the petition says.

The petition organisers say that two sites are available in Midleton for a public swimming pool, one a disused private pool and the other a new build on council-owned land that is zoned for amenity use. They are calling on the council to undertake a feasibility assessment of the two sites and to submit an application to the Large-Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) in the next funding cycle.

The LSSIF provides central government funding for larger sports facility projects, including swimming pools. The total investment in the LSSIF currently stands at €297 million, of which €28.9m has been allocated to nine swimming pools, the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, Patrick O'Donovan, told the Dáil in June.

Previous funding rounds were held in 2019 and 2024. Currently the scheme isn’t open for applications. The minister said he expects that the period of time to a future LSSIF round “will be less than the period of time between the first and second rounds.”

Noreen Brennan, Acting Senior Executive with Cork County Council, told the East Cork MD that she is not aware of any funding currently available for public swimming pools and in any case the local authority would need to have a viable site before it could apply.