Olympic gold medallist Daniel Wiffen has said he would like to see more 50m swimming pools across the country, as work continues to secure funding for one sitting in storage in Co Cork.
The 23-year-old swimmer said one of the barriers he endured growing up was a lack of such pools in Northern Ireland.
Wiffen was speaking as Minister of State for Sport Thomas Byrne said Cork needs a 50m swimming pool, and encouraged the local authority to find a suitable site for a pool that is currently in storage in the county.
Mr Byrne said his department would work with Cork County or City Councils in terms of running costs for the pool if they could secure a site.
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It emerged in recent weeks that Dolphin Swimming Club, based in Cork city, has bought a 50m pool used in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which is currently being housed in a storage unit.
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Wiffen and the Minister were speaking at the publication of the first National Swimming Strategy at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin on Thursday.
Wiffen said life had been “crazy” since returning home from the Paris Olympics.
“I can’t walk down the street without somebody getting a selfie, but it’s good,” he said.
“I get a lot of free stuff, I go to the butcher’s and would be getting free steaks all week. It’s all good for that.”
Wiffen said he believed Ireland could “bring back twice as many medals” at the Olympics in LA in four years’ time. He added that the swimming strategy was “going in the right direction of what we need for swimming pools and for younger swimmers in Ireland”.
Dolphin Swimming Club’s chairman Giuseppe Whelan said recently that while the club has no site or funds as yet for building a permanent home for the pool, it was “too good an opportunity to miss”.
Mr Whelan said as the club does not have a site yet, or 30 per cent of the building costs, it does not currently meet criteria for funding under the Government’s Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF), so it is looking at other options, including regional development funds and sponsorship.
The modular 50m training pool with six lanes was bought earlier this year for €100,000, raised entirely by club members.
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Mr Byrne said he would “strongly encourage” the local authority to find a site.
“We have a 50m pool here [in Dublin]. We have one in Limerick. We do need one in Cork, and I encourage the local authority to come forward with proposals,” he said.
“If they can find a site to put this or a building to put this in, it doesn’t have to be too fancy – that’s the one thing we’ve learned from the Paris Olympics; We will certainly work with Cork County Council in terms of the running costs of pools, because that’s one of the issues that’s identified in all of the discussions about swimming.”
Mr Byrne said there were “gaps” in the country’s swimming infrastructure which needed to be filled. He stressed that €500,000 being allocated by the Government under the new strategy was to allow Swim Ireland and local authorities to hire swimming activators, and not for capital works.
The Meath East TD said a capital programme will be announced separately in September, which would be “a record programme by some considerable distance”, with sports around the country including swimming set to benefit.
“We do look forward to significant projects in swimming being awarded funding,” he added.
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