The minister in charge of the National Sports Centre has admitted he doesn’t know when the leisure pool will re-open.

Difficulties between a supplier and sub-contractors mean, more than a year after the closure of all pools for a £4.2 million upgrade, the leisure pool remains shut - and Education, Sport and Culture Minister Graham Cregeen admitted that it may need lawyers to enable the government to find a new contractor.

Asked by Jason Moorhouse (Arbory, Castletown and Malew) when the leisure pool would re-open, Mr Cregeen admitted: ’We still have not got a date.

’The issue is that the suppliers in Turkey of the flume and the stairs are having difficulties with the other sub-contractors and we are trying to deal with those issues, as it is a sub-contractor with another sub-contractor.’

He added: ’We are fully aware that members of the public are not getting the use of the full investment of that facility.

’It is very disappointing. Officers are trying very hard to ensure that we get a resolution to this.’

The pools closed for the upgrade, scheduled to last nine months, in August last year.

The main pool re-opened, three months behind schedule, in August this year, but was only declared fully operational last week, 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.

Ralph Peake (Douglas North), who said there had been a ’loss of pride’ as a result of the delays.

’Half the area is still a building site and there is a temporary hoarding, which only covers a third of the height of the space, leaving dirt and dust to find its way into the pool area,’ he said.

Mr Cregeen responded: ’The contractors have been on site, there were barriers put up.

’I am not aware that anybody has been working in the leisure pool area in the last number of weeks, but I will ask staff to investigate where the disturbed dust is coming from because it is unacceptable.’

Clare Barber (Douglas East) asked: ’At what point are we able to walk away and appoint someone else to resolve or rectify the scheme and get our swimming pool back open and functional?’

The minister said: ’This would be a matter for a legal team, because of the contracts that have been drawn up.’