Mr. Michael Starrett:

The Chairman's question about the number of museums in Ireland took me back to the last century. One of the very first pieces of research undertaken by the Heritage Council involved looking at the state of collections in Ireland. It ran a pilot scheme in three counties. Things were so bad that the pilot scheme stopped. The museum standards programme was born out of that. The programme has made a tremendous difference over the past 20 years, particularly in the member institutions ranging from the smallest to the largest. It is worth bearing in mind that things were very bad. We have come a long way. As the need to emphasise the value of collections is more fully understood, I plead with the State to focus on private collections that are deteriorating without any care or attention. Over the next decade, if the State in its wisdom can find a way to resolve some of the issues with its existing collections, perhaps it can also find a way to encourage people to come forward with their private collections. If those people are guided appropriately, they can do much of the conservation. This will enable us to make accessible a plethora of really important information about the society in which we live. I share entirely the Chairman's view on the information on Roger Casement that is held by the British. May I suggest, somewhat mischievously, that the general data protection regulation, GDPR, could be invoked in this respect before the UK leaves the EU? All of the information in question is personal data and therefore belongs to the family. Why not invoke something under the GDPR? We would never know what we might get.