Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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215. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide for the records of the Land Commission now held by his Department to be digitised prior to any further degradation given the condition of many of the records; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30075/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine currently has no immediate plans to digitise all of the eight million plus Land Commission records held by the Department. Digitisation of records on such a vast scale is not considered feasible at this stage having regard to both the form and condition of many of the records held and given the sheer scale of such an operation.

However, the Department is examining the possibility of digitising certain key search aids which will enable electronic searches to be carried out by members of the public in order to ascertain if specific records exist.  This work is at an early stage and a process of internal consultation between the relevant divisions is taking place.  Officials have also been in contact with external bodies undertaking similar projects to learn from their experience.

The Department has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Trinity College Dublin in relation to the Beyond 2022 Project which has undertaken an initial scoping of the pre-1922 Irish Land Commission records. That project is working to recreate the records lost in the destruction of the Public Records Office of Ireland at the Four Courts in 1922.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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216. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the manner in which Land Commission records are currently held; if his Department has sourced expertise from within or without Government to minimise any further degradation of records; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30076/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The records of the former Irish Land Commission are stored in a modern facility in Portlaoise.  The warehouse is climate controlled to ensure that conditions are optimal for the storage of paper records. 

In 2019, a major project to upgrade the map storage and filing system was completed.  Currently,staff are engaged in a long term project to transfer Land Commission documents from their original storage boxes into modern, fireproof storage boxes.  In many cases, records were still stored in their original metal boxes which over time had become damaged through handling and presented a risk to the documents within them and to staff handling them.

On appointment, Records Branch staff receive on the job training in document retrieval and handling from experienced officials.  In recent years, policies have been introduced to reduce unnecessary handling of documents by restricting access to Department staff only.

Currently, the Department has not engaged external experts to assist with this process.