Bertie Ahern
Ceist:4 Mr. B. Ahern asked the Taoiseach if he will make a statement on the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on the Irish Genealogical Project, sponsored by his Department up to August 1996. [12040/97]
Written Answers - Irish Genealogical Project.
The Comptroller and Auditor General wrote to the Secretary of my Department on 7 September 1995 advising that he wished to carry out a detailed value for money study of the Irish Genealogical Project. The main issues to be examined were: whether prior appraisal of the project was adequate; the extent to which the project had achieved its objectives within time and budgetary targets; the systems and procedures established for managing the project.
I laid the result of the report on Value for Money Examination of the Irish Genealogical project before the Dáil on 22 April 1997.
In the study the Comptroller and Auditor General concentrated on the extent to which the project had succeeded in creating a computer database which would a provide a family history research service and the study also examined the management of the project.
The study concluded, inter alia, that by the end of July 1996 just over 29 per cent of the estimated 29 million records had been included in the database and that monitoring progress in implementing the project had been ineffective.
I welcome the report. It provides a committed and hard working team of genealogy tourism service providers throughout Ireland with an independent assessment of how improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of their operation can be put in place in the years ahead. Focusing as it does on the effectiveness of the management of the project and the extent to which it has succeeded in creating the computer database, it highlights several important needs. Chief among these is the need for the project to establish clear targets and to periodically assess progress relative to them. As the report itself acknowledges, following the appointment of a chairperson and chief executive officer to Irish Genealogy Ltd. (IGL), a company established to function as the project's central co-ordinating agency, clear targets have now been set for the creation of a central referral index and for the development of a marketing plan for the project. The research methodology employed in the compilation of the report provides a sound basis on which IGL will continue to plan and monitor progress.
As stated on page 32 of the report, recent management developments in the project are designed to ensure that the necessary leadership and direction are provided to build on the expertise, energy and enthusiasm of the many participants engaged in the project, whether in the Irish family history foundation centres, or as members of the professional genealogists associations, North and South, or in IGL and to ensure that the objective of providing a comprehensive family history research service based on a countrywide network of centres and independent professional genealogists is brought to completion.
The Irish Genealogical Project will build this service for posterity which will be to the benefit of countless future generations of people of Irish ancestry.