Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not doubt the high level of commitment of the very limited number of staff at the National Archives. The National Archives appears to be the poor relation in terms of allocation of staff while at the same time we have archivists who are unemployed and in receipt of social welfare payments. It does not stack up that we would have such a monumental job of work to do.

Will the Minister consider seeking a relaxation of the moratorium on recruitment, given the extent of the backlog? I am concerned that there are some people with valuable records which they might want to place in a national institution so that they become publicly available - particularly in the context of the forthcoming centenary celebrations - but they are getting the wrong signals from us because the National Archives is not capable of dealing with the large volume of historical records already in its possession. This may mean that records are not put into public ownership which should rightfully be publicly owned.

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