Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has announced plans to make available the military pension records of 17,000 Old IRA members who took part in the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence.
At the launch of a new exhibition yesterday on the 1916 Rising, Mr Ahern said he was setting up a working group in his department to draw up a plan on the requirement to preserve, archive and digitalise the records, having due regard to any privacy records.
The exhibition, which opens to the public tomorrow, is in the National Museum in Collins Barracks
Describing the documents as detailed records of an entire movement, not just the leadership, he said the aim was to complete the project by the 100th anniversary of the Rising in 2016.
Mr Ahern also announced that work would begin later on the conservation of the Asgard, the yacht which was owned by Erskine Childers which was involved in landing guns for the Irish Volunteers at Howth in 1914.
The arms were used in 1916 by the Irish Volunteers at the GPO and other sites around the city.
The yacht, which is currently in storage, will go on permanent display at the National Museum in Collins Barracks from 2009, and will be one of the centre-pieces in a new pavilion devoted to Irish military history.
The 1916 commemorative exhibition, which opened yesterday, is expected to run for the next five years. It details the run-up to the 1916 rebellion and the subsequent War of Independence and Civil War.
The opening was attended by relatives of a number of 1916 veterans, including former Fine Gael taoisigh Dr Garret FitzGerald and Liam Cosgrave.
Dr FitzGerald's father Desmond fought in the General Post Office, while Mr Cosgrave's father, WT Cosgrave, the former president of the Irish Free State, fought under Éamonn Ceannt at the South Dublin Union in 1916.
The 1916 exhibition includes an original Proclamation. It is one of an estimated 30 or so copies believed to be still in existence, according to Sandra McElroy, one of two curators of the exhibition.
Another copy of the Proclamation, which includes just the lower half of the text, is also included.
This is believed to have been printed off by British soldiers who captured the printing press at Liberty Hall and ran off copies for sale and for souvenirs.
These "half copies" are rarer than the original copies.
Other exhibits include a crucifix used by the chaplains who attended the men who were executed at Kilmainham Gaol.
Various items belonging to some of the executed Proclamation signatories include Pádraig Pearse's sword stick and a Mauser firearm which belonged to Countess Constance Markievicz.
It also includes a pistol given by Joseph Mary Plunkett to his fiancée Grace Gifford, whom he married just before his execution.
Plunkett's rosary beads are also in the exhibition.
On the morning of his execution, Plunkett gave the beads to a member of the firing squad, Sgt William Hand, who was then killed in action towards the end of the first World War in 1918.
One of the last pieces in the exhibition is Leabhar na hAiseirghe, the Book of the Resurrection, an illuminated manuscript created by artist Art O'Murnaghan to commemorate those who died fighting for Irish independence.