On this Vote last year I made a very full statement and I really have little to add. The Estimate is practically the same except that one of the senior officers, the Assistant-Keeper, has been definitely transferred to another Department. It is not proposed to fill the vacancy during the current financial year, so that the Estimate is lower than last year by about £900. Up to the present the work of the office has been practically confined to the examination of the comparatively few papers salvaged from the wreckage after the burning and explosion in 1922, and the reception and filing away, on a rough temporary system, of records which, being out of current use, are being got rid of by the various Departments. It is important to have a clear view of the actual conditions at present in the office. There are really three distinct structures or buildings—the Birmingham Tower, the Record Office (Treasury), and the Record Office proper. One is in Dublin Castle. Its contents are absolutely intact. Certain minor repairs and the installation of other conveniences were necessary.
Then there is the Record Office (Treasury) situated on the Four Courts site, at the back of the Record Office proper.
This was a modern structure built for the convenience, storage, and easy production of records. The Record Office proper was in front of the Record Office (Treasury) and contained the public room by which access to the Treasury was had and in which searches were made for indexes. It contained printed calendars and indexes. The Record Office (Treasury) has scarcely been touched at all in the reconstruction, and there is not considered to be any particular urgency about re-building, because there is no special demand for it. The vaults in the Record Office will be ample to hold all that is at present available in the way of documentary records, and the Board of Works is making progress towards putting the vaults in good condition. In regard to any scheme for reconstruction of records by getting originals or copies from private individuals, libraries, or other Governments, or any other scheme for reprinting old manuscripts and calendars, matters of that kind have been left aside as not being proper for consideration up to the present. That would involve an expenditure in printing and staffing, and it pre-supposes rebuilding a considerable portion of the Treasury. That expenditure may be small from the point of view of the scholar or historian in comparison with the value of the object aimed at, but we have not yet thought fit to approach the Minister for Finance to put up money, and it may be considered whether in next year's Estimate it would be possible to make a beginning in that direction. There is also a question as to whether we could find people here to act in an honorary capacity for the examination of such documents of historical value as might be found to exist here or elsewhere. At the moment, however, I need not be taken as issuing any call for that. Possibly by the time that this Estimate comes up for consideration by the Dáil again, we may be inviting members of the public to give honorary service in that capacity.
