Speaking on Friday, Cllr Kelly said:

"The Borough Council must admit to having a very bad record when it comes to providing amenity areas for the people of Wexford. Ferrybank, although sited in a picture postcard location has been totally neglected for far too long. There has been no investment in the caravan park or the swimming pool since the 1970's, and this is an appalling failure.

"Other towns would pay millions for the natural beauty of Wexford harbour. But do we make the most of this natural asset? No - we allow the reclaimed land at Ferrybank to become an eyesore, we fail to invest in the caravan park and worst of all, we are now hearing talk of the impending closure of the swimming pool.

"One could be forgiven for suspecting that there is an agenda being played out to allow the swimming pool and perhaps the whole Ferrybank area to fall into private hands. It would be disgraceful if this were the case.

"The swimming pool must be kept in public ownership and redeveloped. The caravan park should be upgraded and the reclaimed land at Ferrybank must be cleaned up and developed as an amenity area for the people of this town.

"We have a serious problem with under-age drinking in Wexford which is compounded by the lack of facilities for the youth of this town. It has recently come to my attention that young people are easily acquiring fake identity cards from an internet company operating out of Dublin. This practice has become widespread and youngsters are using these fake ID cards to gain access to local pubs and nightclubs.

"But for our part, we must ask ourselves what facilities do we as a local authority provide for the young people of Wexford? There has been a complete failure on the part of the local community to provide amenity areas and facilities for young people and the Borough Council must now demonstrate some leadership in tackling this issue. We simply cannot allow the few facilities that we already have to become defunct."