A dispute over access to records of institutional abuse has led to some Government departments refusing to hand over documents for a new centre for remembrance.
The Government is currently refusing to give the archive project, which the State itself set up, access to some records from institutions such as mother and baby homes. The refusal is based on concerns that very personal details about survivors would become public.
National Archives staff, who were already carrying out work in at least two Government departments, were at one stage blocked from looking at records by the Government amid concerns they did not have a legal right to access the documents.
The National Archives, which has been tasked with setting up a new National Centre for Research and Remembrance (NRCC) at the site of a former Magdalene Laundry on Dublin’s Sean McDermott Street, says there “remains a reluctance” on the part of some Government departments to share records. The National Archives said data protection concerns are not relevant to many of the records as some date back to the foundation of the State.
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In July, 2023, the Government announced it had approved the masterplan for the NRCC. The “centrepiece” of this will be a museum and an archive of records detailing the institutionalisation and abuse of hundreds of thousands of people in 20th century Ireland.
Later in 2023, staff from the National Archives were on-site at the Department of Health and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth reviewing records that could be sent to the new archive. However, their work was interrupted after both departments raised concerns about the legal basis for allowing National Archives staff to access the records.
The Office of the Attorney General was brought in to clarify that the National Archives did have the legal right to work on records before they were transferred to the archive, as long as they are over 30 years old.
The following year, National Archives staff were allowed to start working with the Department of Children again. Despite this, it said in its 2024 directors report, which was published this week, that the “Department of Health has not engaged further in this process”. The National Archives said it had to reallocate staff to work on other parts of the NRCC “to ensure that momentum on the centre continued”.
The Department of Communications, which is the parent department of the National Archives, said there are “legitimate data protection concerns” about some files “across a range of departments”. It added that a special legal group has been set up within the NRCC steering group with the intention of resolving some of the concerns.
The Department of Children said it was “fully committed” to sending records to the National Archives. “However, the records at issue contain sensitive personal data of survivors of mother and baby homes and other private individuals, which is often material which they do not want to be viewed publicly by others.”
The Department of Education had also raised concerns about data protection, but confirmed that it “has to date identified 13 series of records of industrial and reformatory schools as being relevant to the NCRR”. These are expected to be sent to the National Archives shortly.
Patricia Carey, the special advocate for survivors of institutional abuse, said all relevant records should be brought together in one place “to allow the central repository of records to be established in the NCRR in Sean McDermott Street”.
