Protest to be held in Templemore over access to the garda college pool

The We Just Want to Swim Templemore campaign is to hold a demonstration on Saturday, November 5 to protest the closure of the Garda Training College swimming pool.

The campaign was started earlier this month to appeal to the OPW and An Garda Síochána to allow children’s swimming lessons to resume on Friday evenings.

TDs Jackie Cahill and Michael Lowry issued Parliamentary Questions with Minister Eamon Ryan saying in the Dáil he hoped for a solution to be reached on the issue.

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Some schools had been allowed to use the pool by licence earlier this year.

The OPW had previously said community groups could also apply for a licence for non-commercial initiatives.

However, An Garda Síochána says the pool closed in June and will remain so in order to conserve costs.

The protest will take place at 2.45pm at the church car park to the garda college.

The community say the swimming lessons which have been available at the pool for almost 60 years are both tradition and a life-saving skill.