Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will briefly raise two matters with the Minister. Like Deputy Ó Laoghaire, I am broadly happy with the Supplementary Estimates, but I wish to comment on library infrastructure. Some €250,000, more or less, was invested in the library in Tramore to move it to the My Open Library service. Once people see such investment, they realise that the library has changed from bricks and mortar and books into something completely different. It has become a community hub. In particular, many teenagers, who are allergic to being at home with their parents, have a nice, warm and safe space where they can go. They are playing chess, on the computers, studying and so on. It is also wonderful that we essentially have a couple of community rooms, which people are using for classes, knitting initiatives, etc. They are also a presentation space. Our local GIY had a meeting in the library last week because it was a high-quality community site. Anything we can do to invest more in our libraries as community infrastructure is welcome.

I wish to pick up on a question raised by Deputy Ó Cuív that was not really addressed, that being, the Yellow Flag programme. It seems to be falling between a number of stools. It looks to the Department of integration for some of its funding and some money comes from the Dormant Accounts Funding and the Department of Education. The programme most properly belongs in the Department of Education in order to be sustained in the long term. Currently, it looks like it is going to run out of funding. It is a very worthwhile programme that only costs a small amount of money. As Deputy Ó Cuív stated, we are about to enter a period of stasis in Government activity during the election and however long it takes for the next Government to be formed. A small intervention would keep this programme on the go and stop it from lapsing. Some programmes might be able to survive on life support for the next couple of months, but this one needs an intervention quickly.