Call to rebuild south Dublin pool months after it was filled in

Three years after the closure of Glenalbyn swimming pool in south Dublin and eight months after it was filled in, a consultant’s report has recommended a pool be reopened on the site.

On Monday, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown county councillors will debate the latest twist in the long-running saga of the public pool in Stillorgan, which was closed on health and safety grounds in December 2013.

It is understood consultants employed by the council to design a pool project, either at Glenalbyn or around the public library close to the N11, have chosen the Glenalbyn site as the least problematic.

Last January, the council removed the roof of the complex, citing danger caused by high winds. The council subsequently filled in the swimming pool itself.

At the time the council said the process to design pools on both sites, ultimately to pick which would be best, would proceed. That process has now concluded and next week councillors are expected to approve a motion instructing the council management to enter into negotiations with neighbouring land owners Kilmacud Crokes GAA club for access to Glenalbyn during a rebuild.

Cllr Barry Saul said he understood the consultant’s report had found problems with the library site. “I strongly believe in and have actively campaigned for the Glenalbyn pool being rebuilt on the current site,” he said.

Welcomed

Green Party deputy leader and TD for Dublin Rathdown Catherine Martin welcomed the report.

“This outcome, a recommendation to refurbish the existing pool building, is exactly what the local community has been calling for since Glenalbyn swimming pool was closed. This most recent report, which included the investigation into the possible use of an alternate site which was never in any way suitable for this development, took up valuable council resources which could have been used to help fund vital council services,” she said.

“Given the fact that the council had unanimously agreed the money for refurbishing Glenalbyn more than two years ago, it is incredibly frustrating that the refurbishment did not begin at that time and we had to wait until now for confirmation of what the community has also known and desired: the refurbishment of Glenalbyn on its existing site.”

The pool was also the subject of a campaign by then Independent TD and now Minister for Sport Shane Ross, who held a number of public meetings in the area to mobilise public opinion after an initial report suggested the population in the area was ageing and would not use a swimming pool sufficiently.