Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1019. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide details of who may access the Land Commission records; the beneficial interest if any they must demonstrate in the land; the person or body that decides on access requests; the annual requests there have been for access to these records in each year since 2016; the number that have been refused; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13028/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Decisions relating to access to the records of the former Irish Land Commission are made by officials in my Department's Records Branch which has a storage facility located in Portlaoise. Owners and purchasers and/or their personal/legal representatives are granted access to certain documents by prior consultation with that office. Access is only permitted where documentary evidence of ownership or entitlement to ownership to the lands in question is provided, together with payment of the prescribed fee. The Property Registration Authority is also granted access to certain documentation, on request, to allow for the completion of current and past transactions and for the full completion of the work of the former Commission.

The following table represents the number of search and retrieval requests processed by Records branch staff from 2016 to date. There are no statistics available relating to whether any requests were refused.