Plans to upgrade Cork city's Gus Healy Pool advance

A senior Cork City Council official has confirmed that plans are being prepared for the upgrade of the Gus Healy swimming pool in Ballinlough.

Noel Murtagh, acting director of the council’s local area development and operations directorate, said that Leisureworld and the local authority are preparing costed plans, including funding options. He said a report will be brought before the council in the coming months.

The information was provided to Labour councillor for the area, Peter Horgan, who had asked the council to request funding from the Government for the expansion and upgrade of the pool.

This follows a recent report by Swim Ireland, which raised concerns about swimming pool provision in Cork.

The report said: “Cork, the second-largest city by population, has no 50m pool.”

Across the island, Ireland has one public pool per 81,053 people; with cities at around one pool per 100,000.

Swim Ireland said this showed “a deficit in public pool provision”, pointing out that Scotland has one public pool per 14,047 people.

Nationally, 57% of pool space comes solely from hotels, which Swim Ireland said “has frequently served to mask the shortage”.

In Cork city there are 18 pools, 56% of which are in hotels, and in Cork county there are 23 pools, with nearly 70% in hotels.

Swim Ireland said hotel pools rarely offer the pay-as-you-go option that public pools do, “making swimming less accessible for many, especially those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, for whom membership fees are a barrier”.

Cork has slightly above the national level of pools available for club use, but has a higher incidence of waiting lists for lessons than the Irish average of 67%.

“There is a need for strategic investment in the provision of two additional 50m pools, located in Galway and Cork, to support the needs of elite swimmers and to build on the success of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said the Swim Ireland report.

The discussions about the Gus Healy pool will include engagement with the HSE about hydrotherapy and more public hours.

“This is a welcome development and a statement of intent to do a real upgrade work at the Gus Healy, which it desperately deserves,” Mr Horgan said. “The people of the surrounding area want this pool to thrive and succeed, and investment will be met with patronage, I have no doubt.”