Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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185. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will provide estimates for the amount public libraries spend each year on accessing electronic serial subscriptions such as academic or paid subscription journals. [32882/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Under the national public library strategy, Opportunities for All, online access to e-magazines and journals has been available to users through the public library service since January 2016. The service provides access through a single ‘hosting platform’ to a broad range of e-magazines to meet the recreational and professional requirements of users. Content is provided from countries worldwide and across a variety of subject areas.

The annual cost of the service is approx. €70,000 per annum. It is matter for local authorities in their capacity as library authorities under the Local Government Act 200 1 to manage and finance the service. My Department has no role in this regard.