Written answers
Thursday, 10 July 2025
Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
Library Services
Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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135. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to outline the funding his Department contributes to the right to read programme to local authorities; the amount provided under the programme to each local authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38312/25]
Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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The provision of library services, including the delivery of the Right to Read programme, is primarily a matter for local authorities in their capacity as library authorities under the Local Government Act 2001. The Right to Read Programme was launched in 2017 to support reading and literacy across all counties.
In 2021, Right to Read was expanded to incorporate the Little Library initiative, which includes "My Little Library Bag". The "My Little Library Bag" initiative is a collaboration between libraries, my Department and the Department of Children, Disability and Equality as part of the First 5 Strategy, which aims to support 4- and 5-year-old children starting school for the first time by providing them with a bag containing books.
"My Little Library Bag" is administered by the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) and my Department has provided funding of over €0.5 million directly to the LGMA, to support the delivery of this initiative since 2021.
Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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136. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to outline the expenditure allocated to each project under the libraries capital programme 2023 to 2027; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38315/25]
Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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The provision of library services, including the provision of library buildings, is primarily a matter for local authorities in their capacity as library authorities under the Local Government Act 2001. Notwithstanding this, investing in our library service is a key priority for my Department and this is reflected in the Public Library Strategy 'The Library is the Place', which was launched in July 2023. It is an ambitious forward-looking strategy and one of its key commitments is the development of a Libraries Capital Programme.
The Libraries Capital Programme 2023-2027 is investing €22.6million in 11 state-of-the-art infrastructure projects and a further €2.6million in 12 next generation mobile library vehicles.
Details of the expenditure allocated to each project under the Libraries Capital Programme 2023 - 2027 are reflected in the attached table.
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