FF to urge Deenihan to scrap library merger proposal

Fianna Fáil will tonight argue that a series of proposed mergers of national cultural institutions should be rejected.

During Private Members’ time in the Dáil, the party will call on Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan to dismiss the proposal to merge the National Library of Ireland with the National Archives.

Mr Deenihan last night said “no decision whatsoever” had been made about “how we’re going to go forward yet” in relation to national cultural institutions.

When public sector reform plans for State agencies and quangos were published last November, it was suggested the bodies be amalgamated while retaining separate identities.

Historian Diarmaid Ferriter resigned from the National Library’s board recently, saying his decision was taken partly in protest at the plan.

Fianna Fáil’s arts spokesman Robert Troy said there was “serious concern” in the arts sector “about proposals coming forward from Government on mergers and changes to governance structures”.