Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for attending. I raise the need for the provision of a public library in Mahon and Blackrock in Cork city, the only area in the southside of the city without a library service. In light of the city's expansion, there is a need to open a library.The mobile library service has been discontinued. The library offers huge potential to the residents, both young and older, in this vast area of Cork city. Public representatives and politicians met members of the local community, local schools, parents and residents and they outlined to us the real need for the library. They had a petition, which they presented to Cork City Council. Students in the local primary school made a video in which they showcased their day trip to the library and the benefits accruing from it were unbelievable. The linkage between home, school and community underlines the need for a library. Above all, there has been a saga around the site provision in the Mahon-Blackrock area with Cork City Council.

The reason I raise this matter is that, with a population requiring and deserving a library and with a deficit from a local amenity point of view, it is clear that there is an appetite for a library. Mahon-Blackrock is a developing and emerging part of the city and it has a catchment area that requires resourcing and investment,. To be fair to the Minister, he and his Department are doing are doing a wonderful job with the area via the RAPID programme.

The local community centre, under the management of Mr. Denis Coffey, had a good library facility whereby books were left on a shelf and people could come in and borrow them. However, that services has been discontinued. In order to augment the work being done by the Department, via RAPID, and the work in the community centre, it is imperative, from a community and educational point of view, that Cork City Council and the Department make provision for a library in the area.