Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I want to ask the Taoiseach a number of questions about the National Archives of Ireland. Some Departments are slow enough to send their material to the National Archives, principal among which was the Department of Education and Science, although I believe it has improved somewhat. It is a national embarrassment that the staff of the National Archives of Ireland, despite their first-class work, must struggle every year to put material into facilities that are completely inadequate in this day and age. I am quite sure the Taoiseach has received a report on this.

This matter is not just applicable to the Taoiseach's Government in that it has been applicable to other Governments for very many years. The under-funding of the National Archives of Ireland, which succeeded the Public Record Office, is severe. The storage area of the Public Record Office was blown up deliberately by those who were known as the Irregulars in 1922 but the remaining documents have still not been catalogued or examined. They contain the history of our country. I understand one of the documents blown up was 1,000 years old but the staff of the National Archives of Ireland still do not have the capacity or facility to put the remaining fragments together for future generations.

There is scope for building on the site at Bishop Street but, as the Taoiseach knows, national archive buildings require environmental facilities such as temperature controls. Buildings that become available under the decentralisation programme might be considered although a number of them are very old and historic and could therefore not be easily adapted. The Government and all of us as a people should certainly support the rehousing of the archives.

Will the Taoiseach indicate what reports he has received on how conditions might be improved? The staff of the National Archives of Ireland are doing magnificent work. The storage space is incredibly tight and this is just not plausible if the archives are to be maintained for future generations. That the remainder of the records destroyed in 1922 still have not been examined and catalogued speaks for itself. I implicate not only the current Government but all Governments.

See this speech in context