Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

——-have hundreds of thousands of people visiting them. They run major public programmes in a variety of areas. I should like to see our National Archives institute being put in a position to do that. If it is a fault of the structure or the funding that it cannot do that at the moment, let that fact emerge. That body contains an extraordinary store of this nation's archives and has the capacity to play a much greater role, both in terms of Irish people who want access to the archives; to attract people who want to use its resources for educative purposes, if they are following a master's, PhD programme or whatever; or simply tourists who have an interest in cultural tourism. We should not be afraid to tackle the issue, but we should not be prescriptive as regards outcomes.

See this speech in context