Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Could I raise another point? On the invitation we received from the National Library of Ireland, a number of us around the table visited yesterday to inspect the system and see the difficulties in the system. A large quantity of priceless documents are housed in circumstances that are unacceptable from an environmental point of view. If a problem arose and it involved paper, it would go up in smoke and the building would disappear rapidly. Also, damage is being caused because documents are not being housed in a sustained environment in that it is too hot or too cold. This is a priceless treasure in the library which is at imminent risk. Having listened to what was said and inspected the conditions under which they operate in the National Library, I believe there should be some response from this committee to the need for urgent action to protect that invaluable resource, which goes back hundreds of years. A great deal of the material in the library is not digitised so there is no other record of it in many cases. The documents are in their original format but they are being housed in dangerous conditions. We should contact the Government or make a special effort to ensure some action would be taken to protect them.