Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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685. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the financial support her Department has provided for the digitalisation of the archives at the National Library; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3109/18]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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In June 2017, my Department advertised a new scheme of funding support for the Digitisation of Collections by the National Cultural Institutions and collections of national significance. A total of €2.3 million was allocated to 14 projects in ten organisations including the National Cultural Institutions.

Under the scheme, funding was provided to the National Library of Ireland for three projects as follows:

1. Towards a Republic is a project to digitise the personal papers of the signatories of the Treaty. This is a significant project which will take several years to complete. A total of €320,000 is allocated to the project over the next three years and it is planned to complete digitisation of the papers in advance of the centenary of the foundation of the State.

2. The digitisation of the Band Aid archive is to transport, catalogue and digitise the papers which were recently donated to the State by Bob Geldof. An amount of €245,000 was allocated to this project.

3. €110,000 was allocated for the purchase of a Book Scanner which will enhance the capacity of the National Library to expand the type of digitised content it can make available to the public.