Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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767. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update in respect of releasing the Land Commission records; if he intends to open the archive on a phased basis; if the public will have access to the records; and the amount allocated to the release and digitisation of the records. [12651/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Access to the records of the former Land Commission is governed by the Land Acts Purchase Rules 1939 (S.I. No 341 of 1939) which provides for the provision of certified copy documents to vendors, purchasers and their successors in titles, and the Data Protection Act 2018 (No. 7 of 2018), which provides that data may be processed for archiving in the public interest, or for scientific or historical research purposes or for statistical purposes.

The records of the former Irish Land Commission are working documents, accessed by my officials daily.  The Department's Record Branch is not a research facility and it does not have the capacity to operate as such. Currently, requests to access the records by academics and researchers under the 2018 Act are decided on a case-by-case basis.  Amongst the criteria used to determine if access will be granted are the breadth of the query, the likely time required of staff and it's impact on their ability to carry out their primary duties.

My officials continue to work towards the goal of providing greater access to the records of the Irish Land Commission. As part of this work, my Department is planning to first digitise the search aids used to navigate the archive with a view to making them available to the public in due course. The cost of digitising the search aids is as of yet unknown.  Currently, my Department has no plans to open the premises to the public, either on a phased basis or otherwise.