Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have a few questions. My first one is a little off the beaten track. I am curious about the DNA project and how that can link in. Mr. Smyrl might elaborate on that because, clearly, that project is linked to this. If we are to future proof any report it would be useful to have some understanding of such linkage. On the partnership arrangements about which the delegates from the first two groups spoke, clearly, a charge currently applies for the carrying out of a search and I presume that will continue to apply in both organisations.

I understand the records can then be searched without charge through other sources. Is that correct? If one can charge for a dataset of five years but then the information becomes free to view outside that period, how does that impact on the business model? I do not understand how such a business would be sustainable into the future.

What the CIGA has said is a welcome reminder of what we have heard at our meetings. The key issues are being hammered home. The CIGA has been kind in its remarks on the new home, which is the scrapings of the barrel. I am appalled by this building, which is in awful condition. The move from Lombard Street to the Irish Life Mall was an improvement but now this building is even worse than Lombard Street. It is an insult to people, especially as it is the display window for our institutions that deal with people who are researching family history.

The CIGA has highlighted the resourcing of the National Archives of Ireland. We have had a fruitful engagement with the witnesses from the NAI and the National Library today. The gaps that need to be filled have been identified, and three in particular are very obvious. We need to invite witnesses from the Central Statistics Office and the Company Registration Office to come before us. We need to engage with the bishops to ensure there is no resistance to making their records publicly available. It has been made abundantly clear that church records are incredibly important. At an earlier session I made the point that conducting research on reel after reel of microfilm is off putting and one would want to be very determined to do it.

It was interesting that the 1911 census information was made available 50 years later.