COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF LUCAN / PALMERSTOWN / NORTH CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

QUESTION NO.10

QUESTION: Councillor P. Gogarty

To ask the Chief Executive to outline membership/usage figure for Lucan, North Clondalkin and Palmerstown libraries/digital hubs for each year of operation during the lifetime of this Council; and if a statement can be made on the matter?

REPLY:

Reliable statistics are readily available from 2006 onwards and are attached separately. These statistics record visits to and items issued from Lucan; North Clondalkin and Palmerstown libraries. Also attached are the number of active members from 2016 to present. Registered membership numbers before 2016 are not a reliable measure as this pre-dates the current annual subscription model and so includes those members who may have been inactive for a significant period of time, i.e in excess of one year. Active membership is measured by County rather than by library branch.

Overall, we can see that a year on year increase in usage was sharply arrested by the Covid-19 Pandemic. We are now seeing steady progress towards recovery to 2019 service usage levels. Only Dublin City and Cork County had higher visitor and issue numbers than South Dublin in 2023, and based on the first 2 months of 2024 we can see our usage continuing to recover.