Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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510. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his plans for local authority library service amalgamations and shared services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45961/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Circular Letter LLS 1/2014, dated 22 October 2014, issued by my Department to each local authority Chief Executive, together with the policy document Managing the Delivery of Effective Library Services , identify the structures and national workforce plan intended to enhance the quality of the library service and improvements to the delivery of these services to the public. Copies of the Circular Letter and Managing the Delivery of Effective Library Services have been placed in the Oireachtas library. The role of the elected members in approving the policies, priorities and budgets for the library service for their authorities, as outlined in legislation, continues unchanged, and the new management and delivery structures will support an enhanced service level. The local library service branding will not be impacted in the case of those authorities where new management structures will be introduced.

Local authorities designated as shared service structures in the report are required to adhere to the implementation model as outlined, in order to achieve consistency of management capacity and service delivery across all authorities. The timeframe for substantial completion of implementation of the new service is 30 June 2015.