KILDARE: Pressure is mounting for vacant library building to be used by community

There is mounting pressure for the Naas community library to be handed over for public use.

The library building at Canal Harbour will close once the new library and cultural centre - being constructed at a cost of €6m - opens to the public at the nearby town hall building.

Two local politicians - Bill Clear (Soc Dem) and Anne Breen (Lab) - have tabled motions for a local council meeting asking Kildare County Council to clarify plans for the future of the building.

Cllr Clear says there is a need for a community building in Naas and Clr Breen is asking whether there have been any enquiries from organisations wanting to use it.

”A lot of people have been asking about the possibility of using it, it should be available to the community,” said Cllr Clear.

He said there is a shortage of meeting rooms in Naas and the library could also house a study hub.

He said there is a huge demand for a community venue, pointing to the fact that 60 people turned up at a meeting to launch a women’s shed in Naas.

Cllr Clear asked where groups, which currently  meet in the library, will go if the library is closed to them.

“New groups are being formed in the town and this building is needed as a back up facility.”

He said any suggestion that it would be retained as any kind of library would amount to “an awful waste of a community building.”

This refers to a move by Kildare county council to locate the archive and local studies collection to Naas as a “temporary storage facility due to the deteriorating condition of the old county library building in Newbridge and to guarantee the safety of the collection.”

This would be a temporary measure pending upgrading work to be carried out at the Newbridge facility.

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