Madam, – It was with a great sense of sadness and irony that I read of the planned closure of Enfo, the public library and environmental information centre in Dublin (Home News, August 17th).
This library and information centre is a public service for citizens, school teachers and their pupils and is utilised by schools in Dublin and beyond, as far away as Belfast.
The budget of the library is insubstantial and the already small staff numbers have been further reduced this year, resulting in the closure of the service on Saturdays. Now the axe is to be taken to the root and the remainder of the facility, while it is reported that some of the 11,000 library books will be put “online”.
I now wonder will all our public and university libraries be put online? As a taxpayer, I have always understood my taxes are a downpayment for public services, including public libraries.
There are several layers of irony at work here, as we are witnessing the first closure of a public library in Dublin and the closure of the only library in the country dedicated to raising awareness of the protection of our environment, in its many facets. Another irony is that the closure of this library, by the Department of the Environment, is happening under the watch and direction of the leader of the Green Party, John Gormley, Minister for the Environment.
A final irony is that the facility was opened by Mary Harney, a founding member of the PDs, when she was junior minister for the environment.
The road to oblivion for the Green Party will be radically accelerated by its jettisoning of previously held core positions. Closing down public libraries is no proud achievement for a party that considers itself modern and progressive. – Yours, etc,