In Donabate, locals complain that their library has shrunk

As a steady stream of kids trundled down Portrane Road to school on Tuesday morning at 8.50am, the lights were on in the new library on the outskirts of Donabate, but it hadn't yet opened its doors for the day.

Known as Ballisk House, the two-storey building had been the coastal town's credit union until it closed in May 2021. After, it sat vacant for more than four years.

Fingal County Council finally brought it back to life, relaunching it as the local library in January.

Outwardly, Ballisk House has had minor tweaks.

The council got it repainted, from yellow to fresh white. A large rectangular sign hangs over the doorway, where there used to be an oval one and a clock.

Until last year, Donabate’s library was 200 metres east of Ballisk House, in the town’s community centre.

And, in a town where locals have, for years, been asking the council to deliver more amenities, the council officials championed the move as an opportunity to free up space in the community centre so more activities can go on over there.

But since the new library opened six months ago, more than a few locals have expressed disillusionment at how the project has fared.

Ballisk House was supposed to be an improvement on the old library but it is falling short of what the town expected, said Ailbhe Cantwell, a local of Donabate since 2018. “There is very little floorspace. The house isn’t fit for purpose. It’s all corridors, walkways and fire exits instead of usable space.”

The upgrade seems more like a downgrade, says a local petition, launched on 3 March, and which has to date gathered 259 signatures. “[U]nfortunately, the new library is 169 square metres – over 200 square metres smaller than the previous space.”

The council still has plans to add an extension, says Labour Councillor Corina Johnston.

But there's no clear timeline for when, she says. “It has to go through a planning process, designs, so I mean look it, it’s still a number of years away.”

Many local readers are opting to trek to the libraries in Skerries or Rush instead of the one on their doorsteps, Cantwell says. “I’ve been down once in six months, and I used to go once a week. I have to go to Swords now.”

Rocky road to Donabate library

In August 2023, Fingal County Council confirmed that it was redeveloping Ballisk House as a new public library for Donabate.

They started work on the €2 million refurbishment in February 2025, said a council press release.

That release also said the work was split into two phases. In the first, the council would deliver a library in the existing structure. In the second, it would “consider” building an extension to Ballisk House, planning for which had begun, it said.

But, the project quickly came to a halt when DP Crossroads, a local campaign group asking for more community facilities in Donabate and Portrane, sought a judicial review against An Bord Pleanála’s decision to grant permission to Glenveagh Living Limited for phase two of its large-scale residential development in Ballymastone.

DP Crossroads challenged the decision, arguing that Glenveagh should have delivered a community facility during the first phase of construction, in accordance with Donabate's local area plan, before ABP allowed them to proceed with the second.

But, the campaign group withdrew their case that April. In response, Fingal’s chief executive, AnnMarie Farrelly, said the council would run a poll to see if locals wanted Ballisk House to be redeveloped as a library or a multi-functional youth centre.

That May though, Farrelly cancelled the poll. It would only prolong the issue and divide the peninsula further, she said.

Trying to get the library back on track, independent Councillor Jimmy Guerin sent a letter to Farrelly on 19 May 2025, co-signed by 22 other councillors, which demanded the council proceed immediately with the project under Section 140 of the Local Government Act – a rarely-used legal instrument that allows councillors to order the council to fulfill a request.

That pushed the project over the line, Cantwell says. “The council had to do it right away, and there couldn’t be anymore sitting down and talking about it.”

Johnston, the Labour councillor, speaking at the Balbriggan/Rush-Lusk/Swords Area Committee on 11 June, said the council never made good on its promise to consult the public.

Ballisk House was a financial institution that they wanted to change into a library, she said. “This in my view, was classified as a change of use, and planning permission and public consultation processes was required.”

Finally, on 22 January, the council declared that the library was officially open.

Potential phase two

On paper, Guerin’s letter asking the council to plough ahead with the refurbishment sounded good, Cantwell said on Tuesday.

“But when you actually go and see the library, and were a member of the previous library, it falls short on every single aspect,” she said.

So too said local councillors at the Balbriggan/Rush-Lusk/Swords Area Committee meeting on 11 June.

Since its opening, Johnston said she has been “inundated” with texts, emails and phone calls expressing disappointment with the new library.

Misinformation had been put out on social media, she said.

People were told the extension would happen right away, she said. “There was going to be a massive extension to the library, and that the space was going to be much bigger than the space previously provided for in the community centre.”

Sadly that wasn’t the case, she said. “Many families now have to go as far as Balbriggan. They believe the library has been downgraded.”

Johnston, alongside local councillors Paul Mulville of the Social Democrats and Eoghan Dockrell of Fine Gael, tabled a motion at the meeting, asking Farrelly, the council's chief, to prioritise phase two of the library’s redevelopment.

The public had less library space now the facility had moved from the community centre, their motion said.

The Libraries and Architects departments are working on it, said Lilian Whelan, Fingal’s acting county librarian, in her written response to the motion.

They are procuring a design team, Whelan’s report said. “The project is being progressed in line with the timelines set out in the Capital Programme 2026-28, which envisages the major expenditure taking place during 2027 and 2028.”

But as a big project, the timelines will be dictated by planning and procurement, as well as obtaining fire-safety and disabled-access certificates, she said. “The overall development, while being actively progressed, will take some time to get on site.”

Bare minimum

Ballisk House isn’t equipped to deal with Donabate’s growing population, Johnston said, speaking by phone on Tuesday. “There’s genuine concerns, because it is one of the fastest growing areas in the country.”

As of the 2022 census, Donabate’s population is recorded as 11,700. But due to the many major housing developments that are progressing in the area, this figure could reach 20,000 before the end of the decade, she said.

Standards put out by the Department of Rural and Community Development say that a library for an area whose population is between 10,000 and 20,000 people should be between 801 and 1,500 sqm, she said.

In a letter to Johnston on 26 May, County Architect Fionnuala May said that the proposed area layout for Ballisk House, including the extension, had been revised to meet that and some.

But even that extension, when it comes, may not be enough in and of itself, Johnston says. “That population is going to go over 20,000.”

Cantwell said there should have been a consultation with locals. “But the reality is, if we had known, if we had seen a 3D model, floor plans, sizes, we would have put a foot down and said don’t move from the community centre.”