I thank Deputy Rice for raising the matter. I concur with him that we have an extraordinary dedicated library staff in Cork city right across all sections of our library service. As the Deputy will be well aware, the current libraries capital programme 2023-2027 is investing €22.6 million in 11 state-of-the-art library infrastructure projects around the country and a further €2.6 million in 12 next-generation mobile library vehicles across Ireland. Funding of €8.3 million has been provided by our Department to support Cork City Council's public library services since 2019, through the libraries capital programme and the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund. Details of this expenditure will be provided separately to Deputy Rice as requested. As the Deputy will be aware, the provision of library services is primarily a matter for local authorities - in this case, Cork City Council - in their capacity as library authorities under the Local Government Act 2001. The Cork city library is one element of the overall Grand Parade quarter project, which is being funded through the urban regeneration and development fund, administered by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. My officials are in regular contact with colleagues in the URDF unit in that Department on the matter. In line with a commitment in the national public library strategy, the libraries development unit in our Department issued updated public library standards and benchmarks to all library authorities, including Cork City Council, earlier this year. We all share the ambition to have a state-of-the-art library in Cork City Council. I got involved in politics campaigning for my own local library in Bishopstown, where we had none. Thankfully, we have a magnificent library now adjacent to Wilton Shopping Centre. Like Deputy Rice, we in this Department, with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, share the ambition to have a modern state-of-the-art library for Cork city. That is a project we will all support.
Sentiment score: 0.32
To clarify for the Deputy so that he knows, it is not our Department that is responsible; it is the Department of housing. To help him again, Cork City Council is the responsible local authority. I think Deputy Rice was at the briefing we had as Members of the Oireachtas with the chief executive of the city council before Christmas, where we believe the city council identified a site. Work is ongoing. Our Department is committed in terms of our responsibility. The Department of housing is equally committed, as Deputy Rice will know. It should be put on record that this Government has been supportive and has funded Cork City Council and the regeneration of Cork city. I hope the Deputy understands that the element we speak about today, the library, on which we agree, is one element of the Grand Parade project and has been allocated funding under the urban regeneration and development fund. That funding has been provided. Equally, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, and the previous Minister, Heather Humphreys, provided moneys under the URDF to Cork County Council, and we committed to and have built two libraries in Macroom and Youghal. I agree that our library staff are fantastic in Cork city. Our library needs to be that flagship for the part of the city we are regenerating. I look forward to working with the Deputy and with Cork City Council to develop that project.
Sentiment score: 0.29
Deputy Rice comes in here and speaks about a cathedral of learning and it is wonderful rhetoric. I share his view. I am equally ambitious for Cork. I have been involved in public life for 21 years as a member of Cork City Council and as a Member of the Oireachtas and the library will be transformative for our city. The chief executive outlined at his briefing with us that the project in the library is one element of the overall Grand Parade project. The funding has been allocated and is ring-fenced.
Sentiment score: 0.30
The funding is ring-fenced. It is very easy for the Deputy to come in here. I have met Colette Kelleher, the chair of the action group, and I am as committed as the Deputy is. Again, it is not our Department that is responsible.
Sentiment score: 0.27
The Deputy is certainly not responsible, and it is very easy to speak to the papers and come in here and shout and roar every day but he delivers nothing but rhetoric. That is all he delivers.
Sentiment score: 0.16
Our Government will deliver a library, working with Cork City Council, which is the lead agency. The Deputy knows that himself. He was a member of Cork City Council.
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We agree on the final point. We need to have a city library that is fit for purpose and our staff are the best in the country.
Sentiment score: 0.57
I join with Deputy Ward in sending our condolences to Deputy Roche. I thank the Deputy for taking the question. Our Department's mission is to promote rural and community development and support vibrant, inclusive and sustainable communities throughout Ireland. A number of programmes provide funding for staff resources to engage with and support communities, including building their capacity to access Government funding schemes. The social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, is the State’s primary social inclusion programme. It provides supports to disadvantaged communities and individuals to improve their life chances. The SICAP initiative supports collective community engagement, providing direct supports to local community groups, LCGs, and networks. This includes developing their capacity to better engage with other groups, improve outcomes in their communities, and address social exclusion issues. In 2025, SICAP supported over 2,500 LCGs and networks in this way. Additionally, the empowering communities programme, ECP, enhances access to key services and supports communities to respond to area-based poverty and social exclusion. Community workers act as a local resource, as Members will know, including supporting groups with activities such as funding applications and administrative requirements. Separately, our Department’s LEADER programme is a community-led approach to local development delivered in rural areas across the country by a network of local action groups, LAGs. The funding provided by our Department supports eligible projects relating to community groups and rural businesses, and also contributes to LAG administration costs, in terms of the budgets there, as the Minister said, to support work such as engaging with prospective applicants regarding their application. I assure the Deputy that work remains ongoing in our Department to look at the best ways to ensure that disadvantaged communities are provided with the support they need to underpin their sustainable development.
Sentiment score: 0.39
The Deputy is right. The Minister and I are very much committed to making it easier for people and groups to apply, whether that is the local development group or the LEADER programme. I will be answering another question from Deputy Currie in a minute with probably the same replies. It is about working, in our case, with Pobal, as an example, to make it easier for people to apply and get that online guidance and support in the context of an application. If I can use the phrase, there should be no wrong door in an application process. Having been involved in my own community association and GAA club and going through a myriad of funding applications, I fully concur with the Deputy that it should not be a complex process. If a process is started, it should not be necessary to go back to the beginning and start again. In many cases, applications should not have to be declared invalid. We should be able to work with and assist, as the Deputy rightly said, community and voluntary groups in respect of building their capacity to empower and enhance their own local areas. I look forward to working with the Deputy and Deputy Roche in putting in place an administrative pathway to make applying for grants easier.
Sentiment score: 0.17
I would make the point to Deputy Ward that we already have a range of programmes on the ground that provide support and offer dedicated staff access and a pathway for applications, whether this is for SICAP, ECP or LEADER. They are assisting communities and working to engage with funding and services. For me, and I know the Deputy is the same, a core feature of what we do is not just about providing support and capital investment but about ensuring we can strengthen local areas. The Deputy is right that there is the Government’s piece and a transparency piece. For me, however, it must be about how we can help and assist community groups, as an example, to navigate and be aware of the different programmes. I think the local community development groups and the LAGs provide that kind of signposting and a roadmap. We will discuss further the question the Deputy asked, and the question Deputy Currie will ask in a second. It is about ensuring we work with all groups to provide clarity but also that navigability should not be too complex.
Sentiment score: 0.27