Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their opening statements. We will gather their statements with the ones that were made on Monday and with those we will hear from next group of people. Mr. Lonergan from the Department made an important point about the indexes. There has been an improvement whereby people can now go to one portal to search for records with the redesign of the www.irishgenealogy,ie website. It is the right way to go, but it is the getting of the records, as opposed to the indexes, that is critical and that will be the game-changer. Where does that fit in with the Department's the work programme? Are discussions taking place between the Department of the Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the Department of Social Protection on changes, perhaps legislative changes, that would result in that happening? There is not the same control over church records that there is over public records, such as those held by the GRO. Such a change would be a major improvement. With the loss of the 19th century census records, census substitute records are obviously more important. That was the main question I had.

It was interesting to hear the staffing ratios in comparable countries. There is a view that we have a bloated public service but those figures clearly demonstrate that we are probably underselling our cultural heritage by virtue of the fact that we are not investing in it to have sufficient staff to undertake imaginative projects and have sufficient trained personnel who would be familiar with the systems in place. It was useful to hear that detail. I would like to hear what the comparable position is with regard to the National Archives. It would be useful to know the parameters in terms of what could be done.

I appreciate that legal responsibilities must be fulfilled in the National Archives with respect to all the State papers. I have spent a good deal of time in the National Archives and the National Library. There is a good space available in them but it is a fairly limited space in terms of the prospect of holding exhibitions and such events. There is some fantastic material available, not least the publication of the 1911 census, which provided a window into what can accompany a big data set such as that.

I do not dispute that the records in the National Archives are being well stored, or, to put it another way, they are not at risk. A reply to a recent parliamentary question I tabled seeking a rough estimate of the number of boxes of uncatalogued records revealed that there are a staggering 70,000, which seems an absolute shame. A number could not be put on the length of time it would take to catalogue those, but what difference would the provision of multiples of ten staff have made in completing that work? Ms Crowe might give us an idea of the time that would involve.

The information we have been given on the storage of records in the National Library is a little shocking also. Only 1% of records are stored at the standard to which they should be stored. Where are they physically stored? Is there a difficulty in the National Archives with regard to exhibition space, or is that part of its remit? Is that something the National Archives would like to do? Are there more initiatives in that respect? I am certain there are with respect to the projects that could be undertaken in terms of census records, which are a fantastic resource. I probably have one or two further questions but I am conscious of hogging the time.