Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A capital programme of major restoration and development projects was initiated under the Ireland 2016 centenary programme to mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising. The most recent guidance of the expert advisory group on centenary commemorations, which I published on 8 January, highlighted the fact that the decade of centenaries created unprecedented opportunities for people of all ages to consider and explore some of the most significant events and themes in the history of modem Ireland. The group recommended that this positive engagement and the associated tangible, long-term benefits continue to be supported beyond the conclusion of the decade in 2023 and that State support be considered for specific, significant decade of centenaries permanent legacy initiatives. This is a view that I very much share.

One such legacy initiative is Beyond 2022: Ireland's Virtual Record Treasury, which the expert advisory group has endorsed as a potentially very significant and lasting decade of centenaries legacy initiative, combining historical research, archival conservation, technical innovation and international collaboration. This project seeks to reimagine and recreate, through virtual reality, the Public Record Office of Ireland and its archival collections, which the Deputy may know were destroyed on 30 June 1922 in the opening engagement of the Civil War. It is recognised that, while incomparable with the loss of human life, this cultural loss was one of the great tragedies of the Civil War. A significant national legacy project such as this, which emphasises the importance of open, inclusive and participatory access to authentic archival sources, would support the State very appropriately in its approach to the remembrance of the challenging and sensitive historical events over the remainder of the decade.

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The expert advisory group also welcomed the Government's commitment to capital investment of almost €1.2 billion in Ireland's culture, language and heritage over the next ten years under Project 2040 — the National Development Plan 2018–2027. In its second statement of principles, published in October 2017, the advisory group expressed the strong view that "the opportunity to encourage scholarship at national and local level must be used as fully as possible, with particular emphasis on archival investment and development." This significant capital investment will ensure that our cultural institutions and archives will continue to have a central role in continuing the process of broad public engagement, creating an important, tangible legacy that endures well beyond the decade of centenaries for generations to come.

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