Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My understanding of the problem is that Departments are holding onto all of their records because they do not have clear policies on what they need to keep, particularly given the increasing number of digital records. There is an expense in keeping records. The public service records management project will allow us to have a policy so that people will know what they must keep. We provided €300,000 to the National Archives to develop electronic and paper guidelines as part of the project. Guidelines will issue to Departments, making it clear what they must keep.

This Bill is being progressed to provide Departments the flexibility to release certain classes of records earlier than the standard 30 years if they feel the historical or public interest value of the records warrants early release.