'Iconic' building needed for archives - Brennan

MINISTER FOR the Arts Séamus Brennan is considering the construction of an "iconic" building to house the national archives. He said that "just like our museum or our library, they need the same kind of national status".

Mr Brennan said there was about €20 million in the national development plan for the archives. "It does not specifically lay down that it is for a building, but I have come to the conclusion that the archives are unsung heroes that need to be brought centre stage."

Fine Gael arts spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell had asked when the new board of the National Archives Advisory Council would be appointed. It was a statutory body, "but we have had no body since last November", she said.

"If there had been such a body, it might have advised him not to put what little genealogy records we have left in the hands of groups of people who are charging for it."

She was referring to the launching of a new national genealogy service which will charge for accessing public records.

The State would spend hundreds of thousands of euro "sending Government Ministers overseas to showcase Ireland to our diaspora" and in the same week "we are telling them we will charge them for information on their forefathers".

Mr Brennan said that he wanted to address a range of issues around the national archives. "In most countries, the national archives are a major institution and are usually housed in an iconic building and looked on with pride by the citizenry.

"I'm not saying that is not the case here, but we tend to take a storage view of our archives rather than a view that we are proud of what we have managed to assemble. We saw it recently when we published the 1911 census on the web. Already there have been 17 million hits."

Mr Brennan said it was a "bigger issue" than just the fees, adding: "I would like to take a broader national view of these archives to see how we can bring them centre stage in our artistic world."

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times