Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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99. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps his Department is taking to secure and audit all files and documents in its possession relating to the treatment of children detained in industrial schools; and his plans to allow access to those files for the relevant persons and families of those that were incarcerated in the institutions. [25066/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Department maintains records on former residents of Industrial and Reformatory Schools who were placed there by way of a Court hearing. The original files are held in a secure location in the Departments Offices. The files have been scanned onto a Document Management System. This system is used to carry out the necessary searches for any personal records which may exist for former residents who apply to the Department for a copy of such records. Such applications are made to the Department under Freedom of Information legislation and Data Protection legislation.  

For the sake of completeness I should point out that legislation is at an advanced stage of drafting to provide for the retention of the records of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, the Residential Institutions Redress Board and the Residential Institutions Review Committee. It is intended that those records of the bodies which are of archival value will be retained in the National Archives and completely sealed for a period of at least 75 years.