Glenalbyn Swimming pool closed in 2013 and was this year removed from a list of regeneration projects for DLR council. Ireland has one public swimming pool for every 81,000 people. Germany, despite an anxious current debate about pool closures, provides six times more public pool space per capita than Ireland does. These comparisons starkly expose a structural failure of public provision that has been allowed to compound over decades. A quarter of Ireland’s pools are more than 35 years old and approaching end of life.

Source: The Irish Times April 10, 2026 20:33 UTC