Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to the House and thank him for taking this Adjournment matter. I tabled the motion following concerns expressed to me by library staff in County Leitrim due to a recommendation by the shared services workforce planning group established in January. It was tasked with examining workforce planning requirements and guidelines for the public library service and to develop a framework for the regional resource network.

Decisions have been made but once again Country Leitrim has suffered due to its low population base which was not taken in account by the shared service organisational structure. In fact, three levels of urban centres were identified the lowest of which had a population of over 5,000. Carrick-on-Shannon, the largest town in the county, does not have 5,000 people although it is close to the figure. As a result the new shared service structure means the merger of library services in Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon.

From a Leitrim perspective, a problem arose with comments made in the executive summary of the public library strategy. It mentioned that the overall impact of applying the guidelines differs for each library service in terms of the variation between current or projected senior staff totals. Also, for library services with greater than average numbers of staff exceeding the projected staff complement, the application of a transition phase will enable the rationalisation of numbers.

It also mentioned that the implementation working group will ensure that the programmes of Opportunities for All are implemented as quickly and as effectively as possible and that senior staff structures are realised as soon as possible; the ongoing impact on the library service arising from the considerable number of current vacancies at city county librarian status is expedited; and the momentum of the shared services and workforce planning exercise continued. However, none of that seems to have happened and that is the reason I raised this matter on the Adjournment.

There has been no county librarian in Leitrim since the retirement of Seán Ó Súilleabháin some years ago and the acting chief librarian retired some time back which means the library service is headed up by an acting senior executive. The county has nine branch libraries which is the largest number of branch libraries in the proposed merger even though Leitrim has suffered from a drop in population. I am interested to learn what the Minister's thinking is on the matter, where the new library service headquarters will be located and how the process will work. More importantly, I want him to give an assurance to the staff of Leitrim County Library that their jobs are protected and all the issues related to the merger are clarified sooner rather than later.