Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I want to ask the Taoiseach about the 30-year rule. This seems to come from a different age. Will the Taoiseach consider whether the time has come to reduce the 30-year rule regarding the release of papers? In other jurisdictions, such as the UK, it has been reduced to 15 years. My colleague, Deputy Mary Upton, has produced a Private Members' Bill proposing its reduction to 15 years. In these days of freedom of information and electronic communication, the 30-year rule appears to be an anachronism. Considering more contemporary issues, it will be 2028 before papers relating to the Good Friday Agreement will be available and 2038 before papers relating to the Government decision to give a blanket guarantee to the banks are released. By that stage people will be living in space ships. There is a need to re-examine the 30 year rule to ensure material is released on a more contemporary basis.

What provision is being made in regard to electronic records? Given much communication now being conducted by way of e-mail and text is stored electronically, is consideration being given to ensuring electronic records will endure - we do not know whether they will - and what plans are in place to ensure the availability of hard copies of electronically stored papers which can in the course of time be obtained as part of the archives released each year?

See this speech in context