Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The question arises what court records are held by the National Archives. The majority of court records held by the National Archives date from the foundation of the modern Irish State in 1922, although sometimes you would have to wonder how modern it is. These include records relating to all courts, including the District Court, the Circuit Court, the High Court, the Central Criminal Court, the Court of Criminal Appeal and the Supreme Court. Some earlier court records were destroyed in 1922. The Civil War was mentioned. Republicans are often blamed for destroying records; they did not. They destroyed some, but this was minimal. Under the guise of the anti-Treaty forces' insurgency, pro-Treaty forces demolished and bombarded buildings, and did untold damage. The untrue myth continues to this day that it was the republicans who did all this. No, it was not. I will put that on record very clearly. These older court records include the registers of petty sessions, quarter sessions and all the other courts back in the day.

The Land Commission, Coimisiún na Talún, was mentioned by a number of speakers. It did great work at its inception and enabled many young farming families to eke out a living on the land. Many of those farms have expanded, although some farmers have left the land, more is the pity. Cá bhfuil an Coimisiún na Talún anois? Tá sé imithe. It is not functioning. Conglomerates are just gobbling up land here, there and everywhere. People find it very hard to access Land Commission records. The same situation can be said to exist regarding the surveys done in 1935, as Deputy Ó Snodaigh referenced, near the inception of the State, when a census of Gaelic speakers was done ar fud an tír ag an am sin. The area in which I live, cois an tAbhainn na Siúire, was a breac-Gaeltacht up to 1950. It is only recently, in the past decade, that the last of those good people left. They were Gaelic speakers and men and women of culture and heritage, who loved their language. I think it was P.H. Pearse who said, níl aon náisiún gan teanga, or a nation is not a nation without its language.

It was possible for An Garda to collect that sort of information at that time. How come those records cannot be digitised now? How come we do not have the space? We were told we would not have space for the retrieval of these records in ten years' time. The HSE has rented buildings in every town throughout this country. Many other areas have the voting machines; space was found to put them into buildings throughout the country, for which 20-year contracts were signed. The waste of money there was enormous. The lack of space excuse does not sit with me for one minute because the State has plenty of property and plenty of ways getting property. There are many auctioneers, valuers and private property owners who have space. That is a lame excuse. We need to pony up, accept the delays that were there, and be respectful of our culture, heritage and, above all, our records.

See this speech in context