Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a very important issue that will affect every county in due course. It concerns an initiative by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government called the Open Library service. Essentially, the Department is providing funding to local authorities for opening libraries in cities and towns throughout the country on the basis that there would be no staff in those libraries during certain hours.

On the face of it, the Department is saying it is a good initiative because the openings hours are late in the evening or early in the morning, thereby affording some people an opportunity to get to a library who might not otherwise have one. Pilot schemes were carried out in Offaly and Sligo. The pilot scheme has been reviewed and it is now intended to roll out the service throughout the country. It was to commence in a number of counties between now and Christmas.

The elected members of Laois County Council voted unanimously last Monday, two days ago, to postpone or reject the initiative, which was intended to be commenced in Portarlington in the next couple of weeks. It has been postponed.

Library users and staff whom I met stated the pilot report is deeply flawed. It is important that people know this. To use a phrase, there is a bit of bribery involved on the part of the Department and local authority senior staff to have the system rolled out. There is €2.3 million available for it. A recommendation of the scheme is that all newly developed and refurbished libraries under the library capital investment programme should be required to incorporate Open Library capability and should be required to provide the Open Library services from first opening or reopening of a refurbished building, as appropriate. In other words, if one is not willing to go this route, one will get no money for a new library or an upgraded library. This is a scandalous approach by central government to democratically elected county councils throughout the country. People will be shocked to know that this is written into the conditions.

A number of people have concerns about libraries being open after hours when there are no staff available. The first point that obviously springs to everybody's mind is that of anti-social behaviour. It is not that there would be a lot of it but there is a fear of it. The programme has already commenced in countries such as Denmark and the United Kingdom as part of cost-cutting and staff-reduction measures. In those areas, it has been noticed that 90% of users after hours are men. What woman wants to go into a locked library at 9.30 p.m. on a winter's night not knowing who is coming in the door behind her? While there might be CCTV cameras, there is no live monitoring. If an incident happened, one could look at the CCTV footage the next day, but that would be a little too late.

Furthermore, the survey showed that the majority of people in others countries who attended the out-of-hours service with no staff were between 18 and 35. I refer to the younger, enabled people who are good with IT and know how to work the computer systems in the library. Older people, many women and many others would not want to go. There are many factors that should be taken into account before this programme is rolled out. They have not been addressed at all in the review of the pilot projects. The pilot projects review is flawed and it is not a basis for rolling out the programme any further.

It goes without saying that it is the thin edge of the wedge for staff. The initiative will lead to staff not being replaced in due course. There are no staff reductions as part of this problem today but it means that one will be told in a rural area that while the library will be open, there will be no staff present in the afternoon. On it will go. We are now in a set of circumstances in which the local authorities will be another set of faceless institutions, such as the banks. One will do one's business with a machine and go out the door, with nobody wanting to talk to you. We have had cutbacks in post offices, Garda stations, banks and the councils. The Department should not be making cuts affecting our libraries.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am thankful for the opportunity to engage in this discussion and bring some clarity to the matter. I am disappointed with the way the initiative has been portrayed in some places but I understand information can take off in that way. I attended the launch of the initiative in July with a Fianna Fáil colleague of the Deputy from Tullamore, the new mayor or chairperson. There was great excitement because it is a very positive initiative. All would have regarded it as that.

I appreciate that the Deputy is raising genuine concerns and is not alone in that regard. I have heard from other sources also that this is a negative story but, in fact, we should be celebrating it as a positive one. My comments in this regard are genuine.

My Department, in collaboration with interested local authorities, is extending the initial pilot phase of Open Library. It is for those who are interested; it is not forced on anybody. There was a competition and libraries were asked whether they wanted to participate. The initiative is under Opportunities for All, the national library strategy for the period 2013 to 2017. The extended pilot phase will see the Open Library service trialled in some 20 participating branches from January 2017. There is actually considerable competition. Trim, Navan and other places in my county wanted to participate. Trim got the service and it was very positive. People want this.

The aim is to gather further learning and develop a model that may be rolled out on a mainstream basis in the longer term. The purpose of the Open Library service is to increase access to library services by extending opening hours to library members during unstaffed hours while continuing to have regular staffed periods for the ongoing delivery of library services. It is a question of increased access and opening hours, at night and weekends. Even on Christmas Day, if one wants to go to the library one has the option. This was not the case before now.

Everyone agrees that it is always best to have staff present when possible. The number of staff is not being reduced. The new service is an extra service that has been welcomed. It is quite common in other countries. It is quite common to have libraries that may be accessed by a PIN card in educational institutes.

When implemented, participating branches will be open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days per week. Access will be available to members aged 16 and over who sign up for the service. In addition to the traditional book-lending service, the services available will include study facilities, meeting rooms, Wi-Fi access and printing. Meeting rooms will be available for community use. In some places, our libraries are the centre of the community and are very important. It is a case of trying to make the services and meeting rooms usable after hours in addition to normal hours.

Staffing levels and staffed hours will not be reduced as a result of the service, either in the short term or long term. The service will operate only outside the normal staffed hours, which are set out in the Department's public library standards and benchmarks document.

We are extending the pilot given the success of the initial trial of the service in Tullamore, Banagher and Tubbercurry. Feedback from users in these branches has been very positive to date. The service continues to operate in these locations with the full support of staff.

There was a couple of hundred people at the launch of the event. I met numerous people, both staff and users, who were very happy with the service.

They have nothing negative to say about it. I am surprised that we are only getting a negative view today.

The open library service has attracted a considerable number of new users and is particularly popular with leaving certificate students, who make use of the increased availability of study facilities, and community and other groups, which have access to community facilities that would not otherwise be available. Use of the library on Sundays, bank holidays and over Christmas, when libraries would traditionally have been closed, has also been very popular.

In short, the service provides access to a broad range of library services which uses may not otherwise have had access to. It is an expansion, rather than a contraction, of the service. I am confident that the extended pilot scheme will prove to be equally popular and will be fully supported by staff in the participating branches.

The public library service is the heartbeat of many communities. The Government is committed to enhancing and developing the service, first in ensuring appropriate levels of professional staff in our libraries and guaranteed staff hours, second in range of services provided and finally in ensuring access to libraries for as many individuals and communities as possible.

I again thank staff involved in the library service throughout the country. They have embraced change in many areas of what they do. This is one initiative but many others have been rolled out and staff have tried to increase the numbers attending our libraries. They provide an excellent service, including a range of services for enterprises and businesses.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and appreciate that he has taken the time to reply to this matter today. I agree with some of what he said. There are benefits to the initiative but I do not think people considered the possible difficulties. Any assessment of a pilot scheme should consider the benefits and downsides, and the downsides were not considered in this process.

This new initiative will contribute to isolation. People who are alone at home on their laptops can now access the library service without speaking to anybody and work in isolation. That is not good for people. This initiative excludes a lot of people who need assistance. Many people who visit libraries during staff hours need to speak to somebody in order to find out where they can find something or go to work, or are not familiar with the system. This service is for those who are IT literate, know how to work the systems and have their library membership card and PINs to gain access. All the older people who do not have such abilities will not be able to use the service. It is for a narrow coterie of people. We need to consider the number of people who will be isolated from using the new service before we satisfy those who will use it and like it. Many people will not be able to avail of the service.

I want to provide the Minister of State with the timescale for the pilot study review. A sample overview of the daily structure states that at 8 a.m. lock releases operated on a timer on the doors of buildings and equipment will be powered up, lighting will come on and alarm sensors will be turned off. The staff will come in two hours later. At 5 p.m. or 7 p.m. staff will leave, having checked that no windows or doors were left open. At 9.40 p.m. loudspeakers will alert those in a building that it is time to leave and at 9.50 p.m. loudspeakers will alert people to the fact that PCs, printers and user equipment will be turned off. At 10 p.m. lights will be lowered, doors will be locked and all remaining equipment will be powered off. What about somebody who is in the toilet? He or she will be locked in for the night. What about antisocial behaviour in the toilets where there will be no CCTV cameras?

Staff are concerned that instead of doing their daily work when they come in, they would have to spend time reviewing the CCTV footage from the previous night to see whether anything happened and tidying up because they will not know who has been there the previous night. Many people may have a bad experience as a result of staffless libraries. That might put people off using libraries.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is weird to claim that we are isolating people by increasing service hours. Nobody is being isolated or missing out. In fact, we are increasing the opening hours of libraries. If people use the service and have concerns that need to be addressed or require help from staff, that may give us the evidence we need to have more staff working increased hours. I see that as a positive.

To claim that these changes are a cutback or will add to isolation is a strange way to approach this. People feeding the Deputy information may have a different agenda. All the staff involved in the three pilot cases did not raise these concerns. Everything went quite smoothly and any concerns were dealt with. Reports are available. It was a positive experience.

One would have to scrape the barrel to make this out to be a negative experience. I am surprised that people are finding negative elements to these changes. The library service is aware of all concerns and they will be addressed. Nothing dramatic happened over the three years of the pilot scheme. Many services operate in this way.

This is increasing the availability of library services. It is a positive initiative and using our assets more. I cannot understand how people can see anything negative in these changes. There are other concerns about libraries but they are a different matter. People may use this agenda to fight a different battle, which is a shame and spoils a positive new story. People want some good news stories.

The Deputy asked about the conditions pertaining to future libraries. They will be in a position to be able to avail of the scheme. Decisions may be made at a local level as to whether to provide the service but if libraries are being built or upgraded, it would make sense that they are ready for the scheme. We genuinely see this as a positive enhancement of services rather than a negative initiative. I am disappointed that the Deputy is taking this view.