Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

The Minister has responsibility for the National Archives. There is also tourism potential for some of the material held as there would be long lists of records relating to the Royal Irish Constabulary and the Dublin Metropolitan Police.

I accept the point that new methods of technology allow for material to be looked at in remote locations. I have come across fascinating information on going through most of the boxes in Kew. My interest was in family history. However, a significant amount of the material I encountered, some of which was confiscated, would not transfer well to microfilm or CD-ROM. Some of the material is quite amusing. Song books feature among seditious material. Some of the information and records would be considered low level.

For a long time we were not in a position to request this material as there was not a normal relationship between the two countries. Now that the relationship has normalised, some of those records could usefully be returned. Does the Minister have any knowledge of the timeframe that Kew is working to in regard to microfilming or transferring these documents to an accessible format? The Public Record Office has an extensive and ongoing programme for First World War records.

The British National Archives at Kew is working to its own timeframe. Does the Minister know the timeframe to which it is working in respect of the Irish records? If they are to be available in the format that has been specified, the timeframe will be important. An important anniversary will fall next year and in this regard the records would be quite useful to students of history. I am sure the history curriculum will reflect this and the primary source of information should be available to students who may well want to look at the relevant documents.

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