Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

The redevelopment of the National Archives headquarters forms part of the national development plan and €20 million in seed capital has been earmarked for the project. The Office of Public Works, OPW, has carried out significant preliminary work on the accommodation brief and the likely cost of providing the National Archives with new storage and other accommodation at its redeveloped Bishop Street headquarters.

It is now necessary to conduct an economic cost assessment on the project. When this assessment has been completed, the project will then be discussed with the OPW, the Department of Finance and the National Development Finance Agency as the likely procurement process will be on a public private partnership basis.

In recent years, significant work has been completed at the Bishop Street premises to enhance and expand the archives' footprint there. The Land Commission is co-located in the building with the archives and as the commission staff and files are being relocated in the context of decentralisation, more space is being made available to the archives. In addition, alternative propositions to Bishop Street have been evaluated, such as the former Coláiste Mhuire site. This was found to be unsuitable due to the storage requirements of the archives. The redevelopment of the Bishop Street premises is one of a number of large cultural and sports projects being advanced by the Department and the OPW under the national development plan and due priority is now being accorded to it.

The 1977 release of public records will be on schedule.

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