BALLYMUN CHILDREN BEING DEPRIVED OF LOCAL SWIMMING POOL - Edward MacManus, Aontú Dublin Northwest
Children in Ballymun are being deprived of the use of the local community swimming pool due to what’s being termed as “unnecessary and unyielding bureaucracy”.
Community activists in the area are pleading for Dublin City Council to adopt some ‘common sense’ around what they claim is ‘red tape’ which they say has greatly contributed to the closure of the swimming pool sessions at the Plough Youth Club, a community amenity for decades.
Aontú Local Area Representative Edward MacManus, who is a well o\known local Pharmacist and candidate for Dublin Northwest in the upcoming General Election says
“The closure of the pool at the Plough Youth Club is huge blow to the community of Ballymun. It was a hugely valuable resource and was part of the social fabric of Ballymun and its people, so many of whom worked tirelessly as volunteers for decades”
He says
“The City of Dublin Service Board permanent staff has been reduced from 8 together to 4 over the last few years and the funding has been cut as well, together with the swimming and teaching panels they had. That causes a huge issue as they no longer have teachers to second to youth clubs and as a result this hugely popular swimming club has had to stop for the Autumn because they don’t have a swimming instructor”.
“Dublin City Council is insisting on The Plough swimming pool having a lifeguard as well despite the fact that that there is a one already on duty in the pool. That seems to be to be too overarching. There is an issue with that, and funding has been cut to the service board. There's also more bureaucracy involved, and they've subcontracted a lot of the internet forums and various other bureaucratic requirements to private companies which has made it far more difficult, and I suppose it's also diverting money away to these private groups who are doing the admin, when it should really be done through the city Dublin Service Board and Dublin City Council”. “It’s a further example of complete waste of public money”.
“This is putting huge pressure on volunteers who have devoted huge time and efforts into the club for decades. They are very worried about the future of the pool; they work so hard and don’t look for a cent in pay and a situation such as this is just making it more difficult to volunteer over the last couple of years. There is more and more unnecessary bureaucracy and volunteers now have to jump through hoops”.
Volunteer and founder of the Plough Youth Club, Paddy Haughey, who has dedicated decades of his life to the club says
“We founded our club in 1985. Con Rainey, a community activist who ran sports activities for youth, gave us his Friday night class in our very early days. We have been running it since then until June of this year. I was going to book this term, and the pool manager said that our teachers would have to present updated swimming teacher and lifeguard certificates. None of our people had these updated and I asked the pool manager would they take the classes with their staff, and we would pay them”
“They said they could only take 30 children, taking 15 for the first half hour and the other 15 for the second half hour. That would be impossible to organise. CDYSB used to supply swimming teachers to all their voluntary clubs that did swimming classes. These teachers had to have their own insurance which they actually got from an English insurance company, but Brexit stopped that. The cost in Ireland certainly put some teachers off but I am not sure if that was the time CDYSB stopped providing swimming teachers anyway. Just a few years ago the long-serving management staff of CDYSB all seemed to retire and that a very slimmed down organisation exists today. I was told that instead of 8 liaison officers for Dublin there was now only 4. For this year, for the first time the Annual grant and Activities grant forms were administered locally by the Education and Training Boards and not the CDYSB (City of Dublin Youth Services Board), and I know some of the Summer Projects couldn’t manage the forms and didn’t go ahead. Also relative to youth services, Garda Vetting certainly has had the opposite effect to what it was supposed to have. Obviously, Garda Vetting is absolutely crucial but unnecessary paperwork does naturally deter people, indeed it has deterred some of our best community activists from getting involved in working with young people. It would be revealing to know how many voluntary clubs are registered with the CDYSB. At one time it was around 350 and I think it is only 150 today”.
Edward MacManus says “This pool needs to get up and running again. It is an integral part of the community in Ballymun, so many children use it, it’s part of the fabric in Ballymun; it’s wonderful for the kids as it teaches them a skill for life ,it fosters friendships and community and it’s great for exercise .I am pleading with Dublin City Council to exercise some common sense around this issue and restore the Plough swimming pool to the community of Ballymun”
