‘Library’s future rests in hands of Vladimir Putin,’ says Limerick councillor
THE FUTURE of the library in Askeaton “rests in the hands” of Russian president Vladimir Putin, a councillor has said.
Veteran Fianna Fail member Kevin Sheahan made the comment after a meeting where it was revealed local authority staff will next week commence a feasibility study into the future use of the town’s former Bank of Ireland.
The building - acquired by the council after the lender quit Askeaton - is currently home to 22 Ukrainian refugees who have fled their homeland after the Russian attack on the nation.
But councillor Sheahan has long held out hopes that in the longer-term, the town’s ageing library at The Quay could close and re-open in the former bank branch at East Square.
“The future of the library in Askeaton rests in the hands of that demon called Putin,” said councillor Sheahan.
“The bank premises is contracted to Ukrainian people who are no trouble whatever in our community. There’s a two-year contract. The dogs in the street know that contract will be extended, and as a result, the library becomes extended,” he told this month’s full council meeting.
Although no formal decision has been made on whether the old bank could be home to Askeaton’s library after the war, councillor Sheahan is confident this is the case.
However, he thinks other sites should now be looked at, given the fact the Russia-Ukraine war has raged for almost two years now.
He suggested at this month’s council meeting that vacant land beside the former Bank of Ireland be used to build a new library.
In a written reply to a notice of motion from Fine Gael councillor Stephen Keary, the council said it will begin a feasibility study on the future use of the building, and another former Bank of Ireland branch in nearby Rathkeale.
Once an appropriate use for the buildings has been identified then a planning application will be put in place.
Pushed on the timeframe of this, director Stephane Duclot, who is the council’s manager in the Adare-Rathkeale district where the buildings are located, said this would start next week.
Unlike the branch in Askeaton, the lender’s former site in Rathkeale is vacant since its closure in 2021.
Councillor Keary, who ultimately called for faster progress on the two former banks, said he is getting “very annoyed” over the lack of action.
He said he is getting criticism himself, particularly from people in Rathkeale, who are growing tired of the building being empty.
“I was at a meeting recently in Rathkeale with members of the executive. A couple of months ago, I did ask when we gave our blessing for the bank building to be used for its current purpose that a feasibility study would commence on those two buildings,” he said, “To date I have heard nothing.”