Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We can get fixated on the debate on free versus paid-for records. Unless one happens to be living or, like me, working next to the National Library of Ireland, there is a cost to going to these places physically. That is often not taken into account in the argument of free versus paid content. I would like to see access to certain records of cultural heritage but there is a balance that can be struck and that is what we would be trying to do. Deputy Murphy spoke about going to places. My experience is that it is when people absolutely know where their ancestors are from, only then do they want to go physically to the place, rather than on a wild goose chase. That is when the tourism element comes in. We should note that in our report.