Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I am not suggesting the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh is incorrect. No data has been archived to date as there is sufficient capacity on the storage area network to accommodate all electronic records in my Department. Under the National Archives Act 1986, there is an obligation on Departments to preserve records created and received in the course of performing official functions, to seek authorisation from the director of the National Archives prior to destruction of any such records, and from among record holdings to transfer to the National Archives those records worthy of permanent preservation because of their ongoing value for administrative and historical research purposes when the records are 30 years old. This is so they can be made available for public inspection and research use.

That is the statutory obligation of the Department. Based on the information I have given the Deputy, it is clear that we are recording the material in question in compliance with the National Archives Act. It is not the case that one is obliged to transfer records to the national archives on an annual basis. Records are transferred after 30 years and one transfers to the national archives those records worthy of permanent preservation. That is the position. Owing to the amount of storage on the storage area network, we are in a position to preserve all the records in question in the meantime.

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