Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The development will be done in phases. The project involves the creation of a modern archive facility on two storeys inside a warehouse at the rear of the National Archives premises. That warehouse is currently being used to store the backlog of uncatalogued and closed archives. The refurbished facility is urgently required because the archival space available to the National Archives is completely full and the warehouse has no shelving or temperature and humidity controls.

Phase one will see the development of full storage over two storeys in half of the warehouse, with linear, fully accessible racking systems being put in place. This phase will also deliver the plant and machinery requirements to allow phases two and three to proceed. In addition, the first phase will provide capacity for an additional 17,000 archival boxes. Phase two will develop full storage over two storeys in the remainder of the warehouse and provide capacity for an additional 22,000 archival boxes. Phase three will develop a storage area over an existing archive storage area and provide capacity for another 3,500 archival boxes.

The three phases of the plan will increase the archival capacity of the National Archives at Bishop Street by approximately 160%. This substantial expansion is intended to meet the institution's needs for some years to come and obviate the requirement for off-site storage in the future, thereby creating significant savings.

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