Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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113. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will consider a timeline to commit to for making all census returns accessible online for the benefit of historians and Irish persons worldwide researching their family trees (details supplied). [17828/20]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The 1926 Census is the next full set of Census records available to the State following the 1911 returns. Legislation regarding Census collection and records is provided for in the Statistics Act 1993. Under sections 33 and 35 of that Act, information gathered by the Census which relates either directly or indirectly to an identifiable person cannot be released until 100 years after the date of the relevant census.

Prior to this, the censuses of population held between 1926 and 1991 inclusive were carried out under the 1926 Statistics Act which did not permit any access to Census records at any time. However, the 1993 Statistics Act repealed the 1926 and 1946 Statistics Acts and provided for the release of Census forms for these Censuses 100 years after the date of the relevant Census.

Making the 1926 Census available to the public will require a significant volume of work, which will involve both the conservation and the digitisation of the data in the 1926 Census forms. I can assure the Deputy that this work is being progressed by the National Archives, and while it will take a number of years, this historic collection, once published will be of great value and interest for historians, researchers, the general public and Diaspora.