Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The National Archives Act empowers the National Archives to instruct Departments and agencies to migrate information to systems that can be stored for the future. Does the Taoiseach have any information about that? Some Departments are not under an obligation to do so. Letters came to public notice recently from the Famine period, for example. I do not say these kinds of letters are in the Taoiseach's Department but in future years that information will be of interest to certain people and one would not want to lose it from our history. Does the Taoiseach's brief contain any information regarding the implementation of the National Archives Act being carried through by other agencies and Departments where they are concerned?

The National Archives advisory council has been dormant since 2007, when the last appointments ended. Is it intended to reappoint a National Archives council, abolish it or merge it with some other entity whereby some person can reflect on the situation that applies in the National Archives? There are obviously problems of storage and so on.

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