Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Education does not hold individual pupil attendance records at Primary or Post Primary School Level. Pupil attendance records are the responsibility of the individual school(s).

All school records and data must be maintained and processed in compliance with the GDPR and the Data Protection Acts. The responsibility for compliance with the legislation rests with each school in their role as data controller. It is a matter for the Board of Management, who are responsible for the day-to-day running of the school under the Education Act, to arrange the appropriate retention and storage of school records.

With regards to older school roll books/registers or instances where a school is now closed, records are often held by the Chairperson of the Board of Management or the headquarters of the relevant religious order.

The records are not “Departmental records” as defined by the National Archives Act 1986 and so are not subject to national archives legislation. I understand that if approached by a primary school offering its records for deposit, the National Archives directs them to local authority archives services or the local studies section/department of the relevant County Library, many of whom have been acquiring national school records (including roll books) for a number of years.