The next is the Public Record Office, and the Vote is £12,515. This Vote is entirely in respect of staff. The particular institution in which they were engaged has been destroyed, but the staff is being kept on. The staff is being employed, partly in the Record Tower of the Castle, and partly on loan to various other departments, which were in need of staff.
ESTIMATES. - PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE.
I am rather in the dark as to the particular purpose, or at least as to the extent of the responsibility and authority of these particular officials, but perhaps this gives me an opportunity of asking the question whether the records of citizens generally that have been taken possession of by the State are under the supervision of this particular authority, and whether it might not be possible now to get the papers that were stolen within the last three or four years returned, or will it be possible to allow, say, a Commission of this Dáil, to examine such records, that are in the possession, presumably, of the Keeper of Records? What are the chances of getting the papers that were taken, and I believe, stored in the Castle for the time, and whether there is any hope to be got from, shall I say, an inquiry?
I do not think the Public Record Office was ever in charge of these particular papers. I think the Deputy is rather out of order.
I did not expect I was in order, but I am very ignorant of these matters and I want to get some information, if I can. I do not know what vote this question might arise on.
The records referred to are not under the control of this particular office. I will have some enquiries made, but I do not know that I will be able to give you any satisfaction as the result of these enquiries.
Motion made and question put: "That the Dáil in Committee, having considered the Estimates for the Public Record Office in 1922-23 and having passed a Vote on Account of £7,009 for the period to the 6th December, 1922, recommend that the full Estimate of £12,515 for the Financial Year, 1922-23, be adopted in due course by the Oireachtas."
Agreed.