John Gormley actions first public library closure in Dublin

national | environment | news report Saturday September 05, 2009 20:00 by Ann Murphy

ENFO; the environmental information centre and public library was yesterday closed by the Department of the Environment.

On the same day that the Green Party launched it's Yes to Lisbon campaign, the closure of the first public library in Dublin was put into effect by John Gormley T. D. and Minister for the Environment.

The information centre which included the only dedicated public environmental library in the State, was opened in 1990 by Mary Harney.

It's 11, 000 books which included topics such as planning law, regulations and requirements , nutrition, water infrastructure, and all aspects of the environment, have been distributed throughout the State, to bodies such as An Bord Pleanala, TCD, Colleges of Technology, and some local libraries.

The public library will now be converted into offices for the organisation Cultivate, who last week vacated their premises in Temple Bar and who will, it is reported, sell relatively "up market" products in the former ENFO centre.

The Green Party leader has been contacted by several users of the library, including school teachers, parents of children and other concerned citizens. All of these have recieved a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) by Mr Gormley which is to ignore all representations made to him concerning the issue.