Today I gave notice that I would raise on the adjournment the following matter: the problem of the lack of proper swimming and recreational facilities for the children and youth of this country. This weekend we had a total of nine deaths in this country. Teresa Mooney, Noel Whelan, Marie O'Leary, Brian Anderson, Evelyn and Mary Wolohan, Mary McAnanama, Gerard Kelly and Noel Parnell lost their lives in the water over the weekend. We have a new Minister for Local Government who declared as recently as last Thursday at Question Time that he regarded swimming pools as a highly important amenity. I quote from page 1035 of the Official Report of that day:
I know that there has been a growing public demand for pools in numerous areas throughout the country.
Further down in the Minister's reply to what I might call an obviously prompted question from a Member of his own party the Minister disappointingly stated that pools were being provided, "provided the demands on public capital resources do not impede progress on essential services such as housing, water supplies and sewerage facilities". I ask you, following the events of last weekend when nine of our children lost their lives, what are now the essential services? Are lifesaving, swimming and recreational facilities more essential now in this day and age than water supplies and sewerage? We certainly need both, but surely it is not enough for the Minister to say that, provided the demands on public funds and capital resources do not impede progress on those other essential services, it is his aim to encourage the provision of as many swimming pools as possible of a proper standard?
It is my lot here today to speak on behalf of the parents and the wife of some of those who lost their lives in the water over the weekend. While the memory of this weekend is still fresh, we must also bear in mind the other tragic accidents which have occurred. For example—I know this is something which concerned the Minister deeply— the terrible boating accident in Galway Bay last year when so many children lost their lives; the tragedy in Kenmare Bay within the past 12 months, and, more recently, the boating accident in Skerries, when three men lost their lives, the body of one of whom has not yet been recovered.
The Minister for Local Government has accepted responsibility in part for the provision of swimming pools in local areas and has stated that all the necessary precautions with regard to boats should be taken. The Minister in his reply said that people using boats should take heed of warning signs, always keep near the shore, always make sure the boat is safe, wear a suitable lifejacket, wait for good weather, not go boating in isolated areas, tell somebody on shore where you are going and what time to expect you back. This is all very well but I want to say that a far more dramatic approach is called for to get through to the youth of the country today. I am not denying the truth of what the Minister has said but the communication line is blocked. It just is not getting through to the teenagers. There is no contact with them.
Our present Minister for Local Government is a very fine athlete. He is an excellent man with the interests of the youth of the country at heart. However, when he was replying to this question on Thursday last, I do not think he was fully aware of the length of time it will take to provide an adequate number of swimming pools throughout the country, because so many others factors are involved. Although the Minister has stated that he will play his part provided 20 per cent of the cost is met by voluntary subscriptions and that the application is in the proper form, the time has come now for him to take a more definite stand on this. He is a Minister in the Government. It is time for young men like him to come forward, make a stand and say that recreational facilities such as swimming pools and playgrounds will be provided hand in hand with the provision of new housing estates.
Recently we had the tragic death in the Coolock area of a young boy who fell on a bottle and was killed because there were no recreational facilities available there. Even more recently we had in the same area the death of a young boy who accidentally hanged himself from a tree in the children's own self-made play space. Those are great tragedies and we cannot get away from them. We, as the elected representatives of those people, are responsible for this. We cannot shun this responsibility. The Minister for Local Government has a responsibility for it, even though the local government authorities are more directly responsible.
The time has come to cut red tape in those matters and for the Minister for Local Government, with the full backing of every Member of this House, to go forward with his cash in his hand to start building those recreational facilities and those swimming pools. One of the pools which the Minister mentioned as already sanctioned was the pool in Cabra. I do not wish to use for any ulterior motive the tragic death of two of my constituents over the weekend, but one comes from Cabra and one comes from Finglas. We have Teresa Mooney from Cabra, aged 17 years, who a fortnight ago was engaged to be married. She celebrated her seventeenth birthday then. We also have Noel Parnell, aged 14, from Finglas who was drowned in Howth and whose body was recovered yesterday. This pool in Cabra, as the Minister stated, is not for public use and neither is the pool in St. Mary's Hospital in Phoenix Park for public use. The massive area of Dublin north west, with a population totalling 100,000 people, has not got one swimming pool available for the use of the people. I am not fighting a battle for my own constituents alone. I am talking here for all the parents of little children. I do not want the Minister in his reply to say that there is a swimming pool at Broombridge because I will not accept this and I will tell the House why. I visited this pool on Sunday and I got this bottle from it and saw one of the swimmers with a lacerated foot. That is a sample of the murky water of the Tolka which supplies this pool, the only pool for 100,000 people in Dublin north west.