Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I ask about libraries. They have become the new target of far-right activists who have been going into libraries, removing any books that refer to LGBTQ+ people in any sort of positive light and abusing staff by calling them paedophiles, groomers and so on. This is obviously reminiscent of the book burnings carried out by the Nazis. One of the worrying parts of this is how the State has responded. Two weeks ago, gardaí escorted far-right activists into a library so that the activists could speak to staff and give their opinions. I have no idea why that happened; I do not know if the Taoiseach does.

Equally, however, new instructions have been issued by the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, to libraries changing the procedure whereby young people can get books out. As it was previously, once a young person went from being aged under 12 to being over 12, he or she was then able to access books in the young adult section for those aged from 12 to 14. When young people reached 15, they were then able to access young adult books for those aged 15 to 17. This policy has now been changed. Young people now get express, written permission from their parents to move on and to be able to access books. This seems to be an incredible concession to these far-right activists and giving them precisely what they want. It is creating a scenario whereby a young person could have, for example, a homophobic parent who does not want him or her accessing age-appropriate material, and let me stress this is what we are talking about. Has the Government discussed this matter? Surely this policy should be reversed and young people should be able to get age-appropriate material in the libraries.

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