Library Development Plan is approved with hopes to double current membership

THE Government must fund a new public library in Sligo or the county will lose out.

Sinn Féin Councillor Chris MacManus led calls from councillors for the Department to fund a €16.2 million joint project with the IT for a new Sligo Learning and Ideas Generation Centre.

It will include a new state-of-theart multi-functional flagship central public library in Sligo City estimated to cost between €6-9m

Councillors last week approved the Sligo County Council Library Development Plan 2019 – 2023 which aims to deliver the 2,400msq new library, expand the mobile library and more than double the current membership of approximately 7,000 readers.

It also plans to re-establish a resident writer in Sligo Libraries, support the further development of creative writing groups and book clubs and host more author readings and events.

Cllr MacManus said Sligo needed a library at least five times the size of the current central library and for the town not to have one spoke “volumes.”

He welcomed the funding application for €16.2 million currently before the Department for Housing, Planning and Local Government and said if they didn’t approve it, the rest of the library strategy was “doomed to fail.”

“We have to get a positive response. The Government has to deliver on this,” he added.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Rosaleen O’Grady echoed his call for funding and added that it always surprised her that “there didn’t seem to be the appetite to deliver it.”

“I support fully the plan but as my colleague says, it’s down to the Government to deliver on this very important piece of infrastructure,” she added.

Independent Cllr Declan Bree also supported the plan while Fine Gael Cllr Sinead Maguire who said the Government had been generous to Sligo in previous applications under the Urban Regeneration Development Fund (URDF) and she “would hope for a positive outcome” this time.

Cathaoirleach of the Council Fianna Fáil Cllr Martin Baker said members should call on the Sligo/Leitrim TDs for support.

The Library service is aiming to grow the average of 511 daily users to over 1,000 face to face interactions. Online, their figures will go from 8,500 website and online users to over 20,000 website and online users over the next five years. CLLR MACMANUS SAID SLIGO NEEDED A LIBRARY AT LEAST 5 TIMES THE SIZE OF THE CURRENT CENTRAL LIBRARY