Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

733. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development further to Parliamentary Question No. 654 of 25 April 2023, if she is aware that library staff received an email on 15 March 2023 (details supplied) which confirms that staff have never needed parental consent to place young readers in their appropriate age category, and that they used to have to check the child’s age with the parent before upping their category but never needed consent; if she will instruct local authorities, in their capacity as library authorities under the Local Government Act 2001, to reverse this decision, given that this change appears to be in response to pressure from anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21114/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The rules for children and young people borrowing age-appropriate books from public libraries are primarily a matter for local authorities, in their capacity as library authorities under the Local Government Act 2001.

Across all authorities, it has always been the case that parental consent is required for library membership for under 18s. The new library management IT system, which is used by all library authorities, includes functionality to reaffirm consent in line with age categories. The email shared by the library worker is information that has been communicated at a local authority level relating to the implementation of this procedure.

As stated in my response to Dáil Question 654 (PQ ref 19399/23), the introduction of the new Library IT system has been in process since March 2022 and bears no relationship to the recent issues in relation to LGBTQ+ reading material.