A PUBLIC LIDO and emergency training centre is in the offing in place of the axed white water rafting facility at George’s Dock in Dublin.

Dublin City Council heard about the €25m proposal to build the pool and centre on the site where the controversial rafting amenity was supposed to be.

However councillors have claimed that the new plans are a “carbon copy” of the previous proposal, which was shelved following public criticism and a failure to obtain enough grant funding.

It would include a 50-metre, five-lane pool, sauna and changing areas; a multi use area that in the summer would facilitate children’s pools and a “casual diving pool”, and family pools.

It would see use as an ice rink in the winter with potential for Christmas markets and concerts.

The remainder of the space -about 40 percent of the site – would be the rescue-training facility for use year round.

“It is a reiteration of the previous plan to a certain extent,” said Independent Nial Ring, while fellow Independent Christy Burke said the plan to be a “carbon copy of what came before us in relation to white-water rafting”.

A number of councillors said any pool facility needs to be affordable for the wider public.

A graphic displaying the previous plans for George's Dock.

“It has to be accessible and has to be something that people can feel is usable,” Cllr Janet Horner (Green Party) told the meeting, adding that the area at present is a “dead space” despite it being a “well-connected” amenity in the city centre.

The original plans included a Dublin Fire Brigade water-rescue training facility and were unveiled in January 2019 for an expected cost of €12 million.

But the cost had almost doubled to €23m within the year and, in the face of mounting opposition to to the project amid the housing and homeless crisis, councillors reversed their support.

Dublin City Council officials previously hit out at the public criticism for the project.