East Cork residents pool together

Residents in East Cork are calling on Cork County Council to take action on the lack of public swimming facilities in the Midleton–Carrigtwohill–Cloyne area.

The petition, titled Petition for Remedial Action on Public Swimming Provision in East Cork (Midleton Community Submission – 2025), was formally lodged on Tuesday with Cork County Council’s chief executive and the East Cork Municipal District.

By Wednesday, at least 356 local residents had signed in support.

The community argues that East Cork, home to more than 22,000 people, remains the only major population centre in the county without a public pool, despite available funding and a serviced site in Midleton.

The petition highlights inequity in access, public-health implications, and Cork’s position as the county with Ireland’s highest drowning rate over the past five years.

The submission requests that the issue be tabled at the next East Cork Municipal District Meeting, and that the chief executive initiate preparation of a funding application under the Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme.

Residents said: “East Cork must act now to secure government funding for the restoration of a public swimming pool in Midleton—an essential matter of life safety, equality, and public health.

“In a coastal county with the State’s highest drowning rate, swimming competence is as fundamental as road safety,” they added.

In the petition, residents claim that the continued absence of a public swimming pool in the Midleton–Carrigtwohill–Cloyne catchment area constitutes a breach of equitable public-service delivery within Section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014.

Until its closure in 1991, Midleton had a council-run pool on a serviced town-centre site. Its closure has left East Cork without any public swimming facility for more than three decades.

The petition calls on Cork County Council and the Department of Sport to commission a feasibility and cost-benefit study for the former Midleton pool site within six months.

The petition’s closing statement reads: “This petition does not seek a discretionary amenity but calls for the discharge of an existing public duty.

“The policy instruments and funding streams already exist; what is absent is administrative action.

“Continued inaction constitutes a systemic inequity contrary to the State’s equality and public-health obligations. Rectifying that omission is necessary to restore equality of access and to ensure that every child and adult in East Cork has a safe and affordable opportunity to learn to swim.”