Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 595: To ask the Minister for Education and Science when her Department will lodge records or copies of those records relating to industrial schools and reformatories that are held by the special school's section of her Department with the national archives; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32013/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am aware of the provisions of the National Archives Act 1986 and the general requirement relating to transfer to the National Archives of Department records which are more than 30 years old. However, the Act also provides for the retention of records that are in regular use by a particular Department and where their transfer to the National Archives would seriously interfere with the administration of that Department.

The records to which the Deputy refers are in active use by officials of my Department in complying with current legislation relating to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse and the Residential Institutions Redress Board. Their transfer to the National Archives at this time would seriously hinder my Department's ability to meet its statutory and administrative obligations in facilitating and assisting the work of the commission and the redress board. At this stage, it is anticipated that the work of the both will be completed in 2008 and, consequently, it is unlikely that my Department will be in a position to give consideration to the transfer of the relevant records to the National Archives until then.