Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

As a minor historian, I would be very sympathetic towards trying to preserve the National Archives. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, has told me what a wonderful reading room there is there. He shares with me the value of protecting such material, given that we saw the loss of so much in 1922. The latter material can never be retrieved. I accept there is a responsibility on us but, on the other hand, an estimate for a new building in 2006 was put at €120 million. That kind of money is not there at the moment, but I do accept a responsibility for protecting the documents we have through basic work such as repairing roof leaks. Our National Archives must be preserved for future generations. In so far as possible, I will try to ensure that we will protect what is already there.

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