MINISTER FOR Sport Martin Cullen has insisted that the programme to build 57 local authority swimming pools will be completed.

Mr Cullen said he hoped Ireland would achieve the international average of one pool per 28,000 people, but acknowledged that "given current budgetary constraints, it is not intended to launch a new round at this time".

Labour sports spokeswoman Dr Mary Upton said Mr Cullen would "want to get building". It was the Government's objective to reach one pool per 50,000 by 2011, but "at present Ireland has one pool per 58,000" while in the North it was one for every 32,000 people and one for 15,000 in Scotland, she said.

The Minister told the Dáil that since the programme was introduced in 2000, 37 pools had been completed and opened, eight more were under construction and a further 12 "are at various stages of development".

Funding for the 12 pools would be allocated "in due course". He said that "noteworthy progress has been made in the context of the current programme and our priority now is to work with the relevant local authorities in bringing the remaining 20 pools in the current round, into public use".

Dr Upton said, however, that the swimming pool programme was crucial to many communities, but there was no timeframe for the 20 pools. "For example, the swimming pool in Crumlin was built in 1970 and badly requires an upgrade."

She said swimming was "one of the best forms of exercise" and it would be a shame if the programme was limited in any way.

The Minister agreed that there were major benefits from swimming.

While he was not in a position to start a new round of pool building, "the resources are in place to allow the completion of projects under the current round".