A significant portion of the roof of the building which houses irreplaceable archive material crucial to the national heritage collapsed this week.
Fortunately, it did not affect the priceless archives, including rare books, maps and unique voice recordings, kept in the decaying 18th-century Mountjoy House in the Phoenix Park for which the Placenames branch of the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands is responsible. This material is housed in an even older part of the building, in damp insecure conditions, according to IMPACT, the public service union, and is extremely vulnerable.
"It's only a matter of time," a union spokesman said. The Office of Public Works had failed to relocate the collection despite repeated calls to do so, he said.
The Placenames branch was the responsibility of the Department of Finance until last July when it came under the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands. Some of the heritage material is located under a leaky roof close to electrical sockets, according to IMPACT. Two months before the transfer the report of a special departmental working group recommended that the OPW be asked to find suitable accommodation for the branch as a matter of urgency.
Following a report on the vulnerable archive material in The Irish Times on March 14th which referred to the theft of seven original fireplaces, the Minister, Ms de Valera, said in response to a Dail question that new security arrangements had been put in place. These included the fitting of a lock to the entrance and keys given to branch staff.
Other parts of the collection are spread throughout the house, but are apparently not in the locked rooms. As part of her written answer in the Dail, Ms de Valera said: "Placing the archival collection into storage immediately, as an interim measure, is an option which is being considered."
A plan to transfer the archive to Tullamore is not regarded as a viable option by the four highly qualified academic archivists who run the Placenames branch, since it is imperative they be close to important centres such as the Registry of Deeds, the National Library, the National Archives and Trinity College.
IMPACT, which represents the Placenames staff, is to protest to the Minister, following this week's near-miss, its spokesman said. "While locks are being used to secure some material in Mountjoy House and while inspections have been carried out, no actual work has taken place to prevent penetration of water into the building and the subsequent fire hazard."
In 1994 a report made to the OPW by Mr Patrick Griffin of Forbairt found "some areas of active decay and suspected overloading requiring urgent attention" and said its main concern related to water penetration and "most importantly in a building of this type, fire safety".
Later that year about half of the records needed by the Placenames staff on a daily basis were moved to an outbuilding because it was feared the floors could not bear the weight. This building, formerly an Army canteen, is not considered suitable for housing, the union says.
There are some positive signs, however. The Placenames staff have been supplied with new computers, although they still have to walk to another building to send faxes.