Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

The Minister is doing what she does very well, which is raising a red herring. Shared services are a great idea and I am absolutely in favour of them. The Minister has 13 bodies under her remit and I have tabled another question on this point asking why they all do not share services. However, the point is that the National Archives is not a body under the Minister's remit but is within her Department and my objection is to changing that structure. While I have no difficulty with sharing services, merging the National Archives with a State body that shares very few of its functions constitutes a major change, as about all they hold in common is that both involve written records. I urge the Minister to undertake some form of cost-benefit analysis on the proposed merger before taking this path because there is no rationale for it. Moreover, no papers have been produced under freedom of information legislation to demonstrate there is any reason to do this or that anyone will benefit. I acknowledge the sharing of services should be done by everyone.

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