Workers’ Party representative David Gardiner, while welcoming the Saturday opening hours currently being piloted in Palmerstown Library Digital Hub, has called on South Dublin County Council to provide a full-time library service for the area.

Gardiner said:

“Palmerstown has a population of over 11,000 people, with four new housing developments either underway or proposed. As an area that’s growing, it’s vital that we have enough facilities and services on offer in the community for people to make use of.”

“Although I’m glad to see that the library is piloting children’s events on Saturdays throughout May and June, this still only amounts to three days a week that it’s open at all, and we don’t even know yet if this will continue after the pilot scheme.”

“The space that’s there at the moment isn’t exactly ideal. Many people locally will remember that where Palmerstown Library Digital Hub is now used to be a newsagent’s. Surely the council can be a bit more ambitious in providing a library service than two or three days a week in such a small unit.”

“The library at Stewarts is also only open for a certain amount of hours. In fact, both of these libraries are the only two operated by the council not to open until 8pm from Monday to Thursday, according to their website.”

“For some time now, the Workers’ Party has been calling for a fully-equipped and fully-functional library service for Palmerstown. This would provide the community at large with some of the services already there including 3D printing, public access PCs, free Wifi, printing, photocopying, scanning and more, as well as events and a meeting place, but on a full-time basis.”