Country is swimming in money, but we have too few pools

Sir, – The magnificent achievements of Ellen Walshe and Mona McSharry at the European Swimming Championships last month and the brilliant win of Róisín Ní Riain at the European Para Swimming Championships are great joy to the country.

However, successive governments have failed our population of all ages – those who want to learn to swim, others who want to progress competitively and those who can no longer enjoy contact sports – by failing to provide swimming facilities for our population. Ireland has just one public pool per 81,000 of the population.

A perfectly good site remains in Stillorgan, Co Dublin, which operated as Glenalbyn Swimming Pool until its closure 13 years ago. The site is there. We were told there was adequate funding and we were promised the pool would be repaired and reopened. Or was this just to gain the votes of a trusting public? It is beyond time to renovate and reopen this pool.

Is there anyone with vision within our Cabinet with an interest in the health, wellbeing and development of swimming in Ireland? – Yours, etc,