Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 47: To ask the Minister for Defence his proposals to make available to historians and to the public, records of the military pensions archive in his Department. [21975/07]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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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.

An Interdepartmental Working Group chaired by the Department of An Taoiseach was established last year to progress this matter. My Department and the Defence Forces are represented on this Committee along with representatives of Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, the OPW and the National Archives.

This is a major project and considerable preparatory work has already been completed. In addition, my Department will shortly be placing advertisements in the national press seeking to recruit professional archivists who will be dedicated to this project under the guidance of the inter-departmental Committee.