‘It’s all good news’ - Plan for new Offaly swimming pool progresses to next stage

The plan for a new swimming pool in County Offaly has progressed to the next stage, a council meeting has heard.

An update was provided on plans for the new Edenderry swimming pool at the March meeting of the Edenderry Municipal District.

Andrew Murray, Director of Services at Offaly County Council, outlined how the project is progressing.

Mr Murray said: “On the swimming pool project, we got approval for stage one from the Department of Sports last week.

“We have gone on and we have advertised a tender for stage two of the design. We did that yesterday.”

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He continued by saying that whilst the tender advertisement has a deadline of four weeks, a number of companies will probably look for an extension.

He added that the council hopes for the tender process to be concluded in May or June.

At this point, Fianna Fáil councillor Claire Murray-Smale asked if there is a timeframe envisaged for the construction or completion of the pool.

Cllr Murray-Smale said: “Could you advise when the pool will be close to completion or [when there will be] diggers on site because I just get so many questions about when the pool will be up and running and it’s still hard to answer.”

In response, Mr Murray said the council cannot put a date on it because of the amount of delays the project has faced.

He stated: “It’s very hard because we thought we were going to advertise for stage two in September but it took from September to now to get approval for stage one.

“So they’re months that you kind of lose. Now we’re doing everything we can to keep grabbing back months.”

Fine Gael councillor Noel Cribbin, who is a member of the Edenderry Swimming Pool Committee, also highlighted the delays that the project has been hit with.

However, he was optimistic that things will progress now that the project has got stage one approval.

Cllr Cribbin said: “It’s all good news and look it Claire, as Andrew said, there was more than a couple of weeks lost there but we were on schedule until then.

“We’re back in now, we’re dealing with it, we’re down to six or seven companies that are in for the design. We’re now dealing with them.”

He indicated that he did not want to give people false expectations on when the pool might be constructed or open to the public.

Cllr Cribbin concluded by expressing hope that the project will have progressed come May or June.

Mr Murray reassured councillors that they would be updated on any progress made over the coming months.

In November 2024, an allocation of €8.9 million was announced for the Edenderry Swimming Pool project as part of the Large-Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF).

The location of the proposed development is on a former OPW site which was purchased by Offaly County Council in 2022.

The unused site forms part of the Blundell Masterplan in the heart of Edenderry town.