Public pool plan makes waves in tourist stronghold

A public swimming pool is being planned for Killarney in a town where there are already 14 pools. Donal Hickey examines the arguments for and against it.

KILLARNEY has more private hotel swimming pools than petrol filling stations or supermarkets. The fact underlines the old tradition in the area of putting tourists first.

But local people also need leisure services and plans are moving ahead to build a public sports complex, including a controversial 25-metre pool, at a cost of €12 million.

The controversial complex - the initiative of Killarney Town Council - has been coming for almost 20 years. The main argument against the pool component of the Killarney Sports and Leisure Centre is that Killarney already has enough pools. Of the 14 hotel pools in the area, 12 are open to the public and most offer competitive rates, especially in winter. Another key factor is that local members are needed to sustain pools in the off-season.

The area has a population catchment of between 40,000 and 50,000, of whom around 3,000 are members of hotel pools.

The Aquila leisure centre, in the Gleneagle Hotel, opened 13 years ago with a 25-metre pool, one of the first of its kind in the country. It also has a jacuzzi and steam room.

Aquila manager Eamon Quigley said all water-based leisure facilities were very, very expensive to run, while pointing out competition between hotel pools in Killarney was keen.

“The prices we offer are very good when compared to similar facilities in Dublin and Cork. We can offer a €550 package for nine months, with full access to all facilities. That could cost around €1,500 in Dublin,” he said.

“But I don’t think there is any huge, new market out there for hotel pool membership in Killarney.”

The Castlerosse Hotel has a six-month, €210 deal, which offers people access to its 20-metre pool, gym and other leisure facilities.

“Between 500 and 600 people are members, mainly from September to March, and we also have a very popular voucher system, which offers 10 visits with unlimited time for €50 per adult,” said Fiona Carroll, manager of the Castlerosse leisure centre.

Labour councillor Seán O’Grady is one of the most enthusiastic advocates of the public complex in Killarney. He is convinced about the demand for it and believes that it will be fully utilised by local people and visitors. “There were always those who believed that Killarney should exist only to service the tourist trade,” he said.

Mr O’Grady said such people also believed money spent on ‘radical’ projects for local people, such as sports complexes, was a waste. He said that three surveys in the past six years had identified a pool/leisure complex as the greatest need in Killarney and added: “There’s not one good reason why the complex, as proposed, should not go ahead.”

A key supporter is Tourism Minister John O’Donoghue - Killarney is the main population centre in his constituency - and he has helped secure grants of up to e6m.

A leisure management company, which is already running other complexes around the country, is being engaged by the town council to run the complex commercially.

While everyone agrees that Killarney needs the ‘dry’ component of the public complex, which will have an international-size sports hall with seating for 500 spectators, there are strong opponents of the pool element.

Independent councillor Niall O’Callaghan has claimed that up to 90% of Killarney people don’t want another pool.

In any case, construction work on the complex is due to start this year on a 3.5-acre site.