My Department's officials have and continue to liaise with the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), both in relation to the digitisation of former Irish Land Commission records and how best to make them accessible to members of the public, within the constraints imposed by the current legislative framework.
Officials from Records Branch have travelled to Belfast on two occasions to date, to learn from the work that has been done by PRONI to preserve the records and how they have managed access. As a result, my Department has recently instituted new policies on in-person visits to its facilities.
These actions did not take place as part of the shared island initiative. Rather, they were the result of ongoing engagement by officials with a number of other organisations to learn from their experience.