Ms Colette O'Flaherty:

We engaged in a project with the libraries of Trinity College and UCD to look at a possible collaborative storage facility at the end of 2011. That was a very valuable exercise in quantifying the existing storage needs and the future growth of our collections. Much of our material is stored on site in Kildare Street. We have some off-site storage and we also avail of commercial storage, but as the director said in her opening statement, very little of this storage meets international preservation standards. We are keen to explore the opportunities that are available to ensure that does not continue to be the case in the future. There was a major loss of material at the end of the decade we are now commemorating 100 years later, so there is a possible opportunity to redress that in this decade of commemorations, in terms of our national patrimony.