Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 19: To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the steps he is taking to promote the potential of genealogy tourism; his views that a more centralised approach to record keeping would assist its development; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36436/11]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 44: To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the way he intends to support the provision of genealogical research into family histories and encourage roots tourism; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36578/11]

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 19 and 44 together.

As Deputies will be aware, I take a keen interest in genealogy issues. My own Department is responsible for the website www.irishgenealogy.ie, which contains nearly 3 million Church records of Baptism, Marriage and Burial from pre-1911, covering Dublin City, together with Counties Carlow, Cork and Kerry. There is no charge for accessing this website. It is also a valuable aid to those who wish to research their ancestry and, in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland, it has a page dedicated to helping those who would like to visit the home of their forebears. To date in 2011, over 320,000 visitors have visited this website.

Since the National Archives digitised the 1911 and 1901 Census returns for all 32 Counties and made them available on-line in 2007, the use by the Irish public and the international Irish diaspora has been nothing short of remarkable, with almost 600 million hits registered on the website and 12.5 million visits. Irish addresses account for just under half the hits/users and the remainder are people in the UK, the United States, Canada and Australia, New Zealand and the EU in descending order. The 1926 Census was the first undertaken by an Irish Government and it is my intention to have the census returns digitised and made available on-line as a 1916 centenary project, subject to resources and the resolution of legal and other issues.

I would also draw the Deputies' attention to a full-day seminar that I held on 7th September 2011 in the National Library of Ireland. The seminar was attended by representatives from a wide range of organisations with an interest in genealogy matters. Its purpose was to evince a more co-ordinated approach to this area. Each organisation which attended was given an opportunity to make a presentation that outlined their views on the issue of digitising genealogical records and maximising the potential of roots tourism. This involved some 30 presentations over the course of the day. I am still considering the views of the various organisations on these important issues.