Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

I thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment. The demonstration library project is one of the most important and innovative initiatives of the Department of Education and Skills and is designed to encourage and develop literacy skills of students in schools in designated disadvantaged areas. The announcement earlier this week that the project is at risk is of huge concern. The decision to abolish the project will, if it happens, affect 22 schools. It will have a negative impact not just on the schools affected, but on the students most in need of the project who will lose out on vital opportunities.

I am familiar with a number of schools in my constituency where this library support is available. It was and continues to be a real bonus to the students who might be at risk of leaving school without any formal qualifications. I have seen for myself the difference it has made, not just in terms of the literacy skills that it has helped to promote, but also by way of the social development it has engendered. It has created an environment where books of all sizes and shapes and difficulty are no longer seen as a threat to students and something that should be avoided alt all costs. Instead, the availability of books in an attractive environment with ease of access has stimulated an interest in reading in students that would never have expressed any interest in literature. This is the report from their teachers and from the librarians. It is also my own experience, having seen these libraries in three schools in my constituency and observed the interest of the students in spending time in the library. The project has also generated an air of confidence in the students in tackling literacy issues that previously held no interest for them. The library project has also formed a new type of social interaction between the students themselves, their teachers and the librarians who have been so supportive of the students' needs.

In a press release in July 2008, the former Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, stated: "The project puts in place high quality, fully stocked and equipped modern libraries and provides each with a professional librarian." He went on to say: "These are not ordinary school libraries, they are creative active learning centres" and "are designed to entice and engage the most reluctant teenager". It would be truly regressive if this facility was now withdrawn. Last week, in reply to a parliamentary question raised by my colleague Deputy Róisín Shortall, Deputy Haughey stated that the demonstration library projects formed an integral part of the Government's strategy on tackling illiteracy. However, on the same day, the Minister, Deputy Coughlan, confirmed in a separate reply that the library staff were subject to the public sector moratorium on recruitment. We need clarification on this issue so that the schools can plan for the coming academic year confident that this vital support will be retained.

I am asking this evening that this project be retained, by whatever mechanism is required. If the project is lost, it will send out a singular message that literacy does not matter and that it is a right only for those who can access it with academic ease and with the financial wherewithal to do so.

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