A government minister and a backbencher traded insults in the House of Keys on Tuesday as they argued over continuing problems at the NSC swimming pool.

Ralph Peake (Douglas North) accused Education, Sport and Culture Minister Graham Cregeen of displaying a lack of leadership in dealing with the issue.

But the under-fire minister hit back that Mr Peake was a member of the Treasury and would have been involved in the capital project and ’now he is criticising a process that is going through’.

Last month, Mr Cregeen admitted he did not know when the Douglas leisure pool would re-open.

Difficulties between a supplier and sub-contractors over a new flume and stairs meant, more than a year after the closure of all pools for a £4.2 million upgrade, the leisure pool remained shut. Lawyers are trying to deal with the matter.

The pools closed for the upgrade, scheduled to last nine months, in August last year. The main pool was only declared fully operational in October this year, when a fault in the control mechanism for the boom that divides the fixed level floor of the pool from the flexible level floor was fixed.

However, on at least one day this month, school swimming lessons at the NSC had to be cancelled due to a problem with the floor level.

Earlier, Mr Peake had asked what the associated costs were for the repairs and maintenance of the moveable floor.

Mr Cregeen said: ’There has been no charge to Isle of Government for the attendance and repairs by specialist subcontractor, Variopool in resolving these early operational difficulties.’

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Mr Peake, who is chairman of the Isle of Man Swimming Association and a coach with Douglas Swimming Club, said their swimming groups had been forced to seek other venues.

In response to Mr Cregeen’s barb about the Treasury, he accused the minister of trying to ’deflect his responsibilities’.

He added: ’All I see at the moment is lack of leadership, costs not being addressed and an ongoing lack of impetus to actually get a National Sports Centre that we all want and need.’

Mr Cregeen upped the stakes by stating Mr Peake ’praises himself much on his ability’.

Government officers were trying to solve the contractual problems, he said.

’It is not for a politician to go out and negotiate with the contractors regarding this matter.’

Mr Peake challenged the minister to inspect the state of the NSC pool area himself and invited him to meet him at his swimming club’s Friday session.

Mr Cregeen replied: ’I may turn up during the week - I cannot say that I will be down there on the Friday to see the honourable member coach his swimming.’