Ms Fiona Ross:

In response to Senator Ó Murchú, of course there is always a process to be followed and we would welcome any role in that process. There has been an ongoing process for many years in this area. In Tuesday's session there were references to the Teehan report of 1998. It gives those of us on this side of the table a heavy heart to think that we may have to begin a long process again. I have met the family history foundation, the association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland, APGI, and all the other participants at the National Library. Indeed, we have met our colleagues from the archives and the Department on many occasions. We also had the session to which Senator Ó Murchú referred, approximately 18 months or two years ago, chaired by former Mr. Justice Bryan MacMahon. In many respects, the issues, challenges and items for discussions are well known and well socialised, and it is time for action and change. I would like to make that point strongly.

With regard to funding, one of the issues for us at the National Library is that we look at some of the relationships that the archives have developed with some of the commercial partners.

Our challenge within the National Library concerns our having sufficient staff resources even to enter those negotiations and contracts.

On the issue of possible costs and funding, I will answer the question directly in terms of parish registers. This is also an investment and should not be seen as an unnecessary cost. The marketing and PR costs associated with The Gathering amounted to many millions of euro and represented money well spent. I congratulate those involved in The Gathering. Where a percentage of that investment is in genealogical records - in my case, the ones we hold on microfilm are the parish registers - the economic value that this seed corn can create is such that 70 million people can sit in their own homes and identify their Irish ancestry and then plan their trips to Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Roscommon and Leitrim. It is a long-held belief of the National Library that we should decentralise genealogy. We would love everybody to bypass Kildare Street. We have two members of staff dealing with 7,000 people, who must queue up on a Victorian staircase in the heat of the summer to try to see our two unqualified but hard-working genealogists. This is an investment. Where one sees an investment in jobs, enterprise and creative industries, one should realise there is an investment to be made in this field that will categorically pay a return to all involved. With regard to the specifics surrounding parish registers, we are in receipt daily of offers by those who would do the work for free. At this point, we have held off on making any decision simply on the basis of our internal resources required to handle a project of that scale. It is something we would love to explore. Free is a good number and obviously there will be resource constraints but we would certainly love to be able to move forward on that agenda specifically.