Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is not a question but a comment. Obviously data protection is an issue, but the State has been publishing records such as census records from 1911. Therefore, there is a precedent for opening very old records. That is why the date issue is key. Obviously they are not going to open up census records beyond a certain date. The appropriate date was debated in Cabinet and the Oireachtas. It was opened a fair while ago. The people from 1911 might have been alive as children. It did give personal information. I was curious about one case. The lesser known grandfather wrote the whole thing in the return for 1911 in the simplified version of Irish he had, so there was a lot of personal information and it told how serious they were in private life about what they were doing in public life. It is not unknown for the State to decide that there is a point beyond which documents can be opened.