Dáil debates
Thursday, 8 November 2007
Other Questions
Military Archives.
4:00 pm
Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 10: To ask the Minister for Defence when his Department intends placing advertisements in the national press seeking to recruit professional archivists who will be dedicated to making the military pension archive available to historians and to the public. [27725/07]
Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I am delighted to able to tell the Deputy that the advertisements for professional archivists appear in today's national newspapers and will also appear in the Sunday papers this weekend. Details are also available on the Department of Defence website, www.defence.ie.
The Taoiseach announced, in the context of the 90th anniversary celebrations of 1916, that the Government had decided to make the military pension archive available to historians and to the public. It is the intention of the Government that the records will be made available in good time for the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising in 2016. The archivists will assist in this process.
A total of seven archivists, including a senior archivist-project manager, are being recruited. The senior archivist-project manager, along with three of the archivists, will work on the military pensions project. The other three archivists will be recruited to work at the military archive itself to meet day-to-day demands.
Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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I very much welcome the news that the jobs are being advertised and I look forward to them being filled at an early date. I am sure the Minister of State is aware that there is no definitive list of those killed during the War of Independence and the Civil War. In its manifesto, the Labour Party gave a commitment to tackle this issue, particularly in the context of the Civil War. Does the Minister of State see this as an appropriate task to be undertaken with regard to the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising?
Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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As Deputy O'Shea is aware, an all-party Oireachtas committee will meet to discuss these matters. My position is that this committee should consider that aspect of it as well.