Donegal County Council has committed to restoring a public swimming pool in Buncrana withing the next three years.
Funding of almost €1.3million has been ring-fenced for leisure facilities in Donegal in the council’s 2021 Revenue Budget. The 3-Year Capital Budget also provides for the refurbishment of the centre for residents of Inishowen.
Councillor Jack Murray greeted the assurances from Donegal County Council at this month’s council meeting as “extremely encouraging and a very positive message”.
Buncrana Leisure Centre has been closed for five and a half years, during which time a local committee and local representatives campaigned for its reopening.
Cllr Murray said: “It’s dragged on so long that many people in the local community had began to lose faith. It’s an important statement that Donegal County Council is still 100% committed to delivering that facility in a top-class, state-of-the-art way the people of Inishowen deserve.
“It is a facility, albeit located in Buncrana, that will serve all the people of Inishowen, from Malin Head to the very southern end of Inishowen.”
Cllr Murray has urged the council to progress with the project as quickly as possible.
“In that five years, while the facility is located on the Scoil Mhuire Campus in Buncrana, an entire cycle of pupils who have gone through their school years haven’t learned to swim. Given we are a coastal county, surrounded by beaches, it’s absolutely vital life skill to have and a life-saving skill to have.”