4.2.1 Guidance on Participation and Provision

Active recreation in Ireland is monitored by the Irish Sports Council. Their research indicates that there is increasing participation in sport and most noticeably in general exercise and walking.

The City Council operates 5 leisure centres and 3 swimming pools. However, sports that require indoor facilities, such as swimming, gymnastics, etc. are not considered as part of this report.

There is guidance from the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government on facilities provision in the 1987 report ‘A Policy for the Provision and Maintenance of Parks, Open Spaces and Outdoor Recreational Areas by Local Authorities’. This would be considered somewhat out of date but it remains the only guidance in Ireland on the provision of recreational facilities. The report ‘Planning & Design for Outdoor Sport & Play’ by the UK’s Field in Trust Organisation provides useful guidance on the quantitative provision and travel threshold for the public to access facilities.

For example The Fields in Trust document recommends a standard of 1.15 hectares per 1,000 population of playing pitches in urban areas and we have used this as a best practice model for our assessment of access to playing fields in Dublin.

Other factors may also impact on the availability of recreational lands across the City, such as the conversion of private and institutional lands with playing fields to other uses (e.g. residential). The loss of such playing fields would inevitably increase the pressure on public parks to be developed for active recreation, thereby displacing other uses.

However, planning for recreation facilities involves much more than applying just a rigid set of standards. It requires the development of criteria that are sensitive and flexible to the requirements of each neighbourhood and community.