Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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100. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the initiatives provided for archiving historic collections; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39452/18]

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 €2.3m was allocated to 14 projects in ten organisations including the National Cultural Institutions.

Examples of the projects funded include the digitisation of the Church of Ireland registers of Baptism, Marriage and Burial, some of which are up to 400 years old. Other projects include the digitisation of the Band Aid archive that was donated to the National Library of Ireland by Sir Bob Geldof.

Under the Project Ireland 2040 plan:Investing in our Culture, Language and Heritage,I am committed to investing up to €10 million from now until 2027 on the digitisation of collections by the National Cultural Institutions and collections of national significance. I hope to be in a position to announce details of the next stage of this funding scheme in the near future.