Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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19. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will provide an update in relation to the ongoing digitisation projects under the auspices of the National Archives; if she is aware that there are potential concerns surrounding different formats of digitisation taking place which could result in an extra cost if, at some point in the future, it is attempted to make records available through the same electronic medium; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23877/15]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The digitisation of records held by the National Archives has been an immense success. Since 2007, over sixteen million people have accessed online the digitised records of the 1901 and 1911 Census returns.

Other projects in respect of which digital records are available on-line include:

- The ‘Soldiers’ Wills’ containing wills of Irish soldiers who died serving in the British Army, most of which date from the Great War 1914-1918, with a small number for the period of the South African War 1899-1902.

- The Tithe Applotment Books containing manuscript books, compiled between 1823 and 1837, that set out the amount, in money terms, which occupiers of agricultural holdings should pay in tithes to the Church of Ireland.

- The documents of the Chief Secretary’s Office from 1818 to 1822.

- The documents surrounding the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and the Treaty document itself.

- The records of applications made to the Commissioners for grants for the building of schools, payment of teachers and provision of equipment during the period 1832 to circa 1890.

On June 1^stthis year, records from the Crime Branch of the Chief Secretary’s Office, entitled Movement of Extremists, were made available online as part of the National Archives’ plans for the Ireland 2016Centenary Programme. The collection is a series of daily reports by the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) Detective Department on the movements and associations of pro-independence suspects.

Enhanced search facilities have been provided by the redesign of the National Archives website at with the provision of hyperlinks to other sites holding Irish archives.

The National Archives routinely undertakes small and larger scale digitisation projects, using either internal resources or external contractors. All digitisation is in line with its digital imaging policy and the National Archives ensures that it conforms to international standards. Surrogate file formats for online access are generated from high quality preservation scans. I am advised that, in the future, it will be possible to generate alternative surrogates as required and this can be done on an automated basis.