Vol. 406 No. 4
4 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Taoiseach if the National Archives have, to date, purchased any archival material under section 4 (1) (f) of the National Archives Act, 1986; whether funds exist for such purchases; and the criteria governing same.
In general, archives are received by donation but the National Archives have made occasional small purchases of archival items, mainly microfilm of material held elsewhere. No specific funds are provided, any payments being met out of their general allocation.
Could the Taoiseach give us an indication as to the category of material likely to be purchased, given that the National Archives are mainly concerned with official documentation? Could the Taoiseach indicate how official type documentation could come to be in the hands of private individuals and therefore open to purchase?
I am not too sure to what aspects the Deputy is referring. The director only purchases very small items. In fact the general policy would be to discourage purchase of items because the director and the council would much prefer that donations be the rule and that people would be encouraged to donate and not seek payment. In a number of small matters payment, as I say, have been made, mainly for microfilm material.
5 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Taoiseach if the Director of the National Archives has, to date, published any guides, lists or indexes of material in the National Archives, so as to make the material accessible to the non-specialist reader.
Lists and indexes of records held by the National Archives are available for consultation in its reading rooms. These include lists of departmental records recently transferred to the archives in accordance with the National Archives Act, 1986. An information leaflet setting out the archives reading-room arrangements is available free of charge, as is a guide to its principal sources for genealogy.
Would the Taoiseach consider making available in the Library of the Oireachtas and perhaps in one or two other public libraries a list of the material available in the National Archives so that members of the general public could find out what is available there?
Yes, we will be doing that in due course. At present there is a monumental task facing the National Archives in taking in about 50,000 files, putting them in order and making them available to the general public. The concentration is on that aspect. There is no suitable guide of the sort the Deputy is referring to, but three types of guides are planned. One will be a short guide to the National Archives, the second will be a guide to the sources for local history available in the National Archives, and third will be sources for genealogy available in the National Archives. When these guides become available they can certainly be placed in the Library.
I thank the Taoiseach and fully acknowledge the monumental task that faces the National Archives. I am proposing that the existing index should be photocopied and made available in the National Library and the Oireachtas Library so that it could be consulted by people. It would make it more convenient to find out the material which is contained in the National Archives.
I do not know if there is any objection to that in regard to the Act but it would certainly seem to be a good idea.
6 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Taoiseach if the Director of the National Archives has, to date disposed of any archives on the basis that they do not warrant preservation; and if so, if he will give details of same.
The Director of the National Archives has not, to date, disposed of any archives in his care. He has, however, since the establishment of the National Archives on 1, June 1988, authorised the disposal of certain departmental records which were not of archival value and did not, therefore, warrant preservation. A list of such records is set out in the note which I propose to circulate in the Official Report.
Disposal of Departmental Records authorised since 1 June 1988 by the Director of the National Archives.
Since the establishent of the National Archives on 1 June 1988, the Director has made authorisations for the disposal of the following Departmental records (subject to the preservation of samples of the records in some cases):
Various Departments
Vouchers for payments, payroll records and other routine accounting records; certain categories of routine personnel records; and computer coding forms, control records, printouts etc. (where the primary information is retained on disc or tape).
Department of Agriculture and Food
Certain categories of routine files and papers relating to: Disease eradication scheme; licensing of processed vegetable products; payments for intervention; payments of monetary compensation amounts; retail inspections.
Department of Education
Examination number advice notes; examination scripts and school attendance books.
Department of Foreign Affairs
Passport applications files (card indexes and ledgers relating to same preserved).
Department of Industry and Commerce
Certain routine files of the Office of Science and Technology.
Department of Justice
Certain categories of files of the Forensic Science Laboratory.
Department of Labour
Certain categories of case files relating to:
Redundancy payment; and work experience programme.
Department of Social Welfare
Certain categories of case files and related records relating to: butter vouchers; children's allowance; death grant; disability benefit; family income supplement; maternity allowance; medical reports; old age and retirement pensions; optical and dental benefits; unemployment benefit; and widows' pensions.
Office of the Chief State Solicitor
Papers relating to certain categories of court cases which are satisfactorily recorded on the files of other offices.
National Archives
Certain records of the production of documents to researchers.
Could the Taoiseach indicate what percentage of the total material passed to the archives has been disposed of to date on the basis that it is not of a category to warrant preservation?
The best I can do is give an indication of the sort of material it is. It includes vouchers for payments, pay roll records, some categories of personnel records, computer coding forms, control records and things of that kind. A lot of stuff from the Department of Agriculture is regarded as not worth preserving. The Deputy is aware of the difference between archival material and records. All these matters fit into the category of records and are not regarded as archival material.
Does the Director of the National Archives have the right, or has he asked, to inspect files retained by the various Departments which they have refused to release?
The Act is quite clear. There is no such thing as a Department refusing. There is a procedure to be followed and certificates have to be given. The Director has not queried any of these certificates.
Would the Taoiseach agree that there should be some system whereby an independent entity would examine the wisdom of decisions made by departmental heads to retain material, in order to judge whether they had made the right decision?
There is provision for that.
