Madam, - Earlier this month Fintan O'Toole highlighted the neglect which has been the history of the National Archives (formerly the Public Record Office of Ireland) since the foundation of the State. His appraisal of the Budget proposal to merge the National Archives with the National Library was that it had "all the hallmarks of a back-of-an-envelope exercise to which, in the most generous calculation, perhaps 10 minutes' thought has been given" (Weekend Review, November 1st).
In the Dáil last week Martin Cullen TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, said the legislation underpinning the National Archives had been "undergoing critical analysis" by the National Archives Advisory Council (NAAC). Whatever the NAAC has been critically analysing, it is not the issue of the proposed merger with the National Library, as the NAAC has been in abeyance since November 2007!
The NAAC is a 12-member body appointed under Section 20 of the National Archives Act 1986. Judges, archivists, academics and researchers typically serve on this council. And, lest anybody think otherwise, it is not an expensive and useless quango, but an important committee that costs the State virtually nothing.
The current minister's predecessor, the late Séamus Brennan, TD, began the appointment of a new NAAC, but had not completed it before the last Cabinet reshuffle. In his recent Dáil references to the NAAC Mr Cullen rightly acknowledges the importance of this council. He should therefore immediately proceed with its reappointment, as it is the ideal forum for scrutinising the proposed merger of such important national cultural institutions. - Yours, etc,