Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 January 2026
600. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport further to Parliamentary Question No. 489 of 25 November 2025, if the review of filing lists and other records held in his Department provided information relating to the records of the Departmental Council working party over the period 1982 to 1983 that produced report No. 1635; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3521/26]
View answerUnder the Telecommunications (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 2025 (S.I. No. 237/2025), all relevant functions under the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983 were transferred to me from the then-Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications.
As part of the transfer of functions, officials in my Department have liaised with officials in the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment with respect to records on the matter referred to, and that Department has confirmed that it holds no files on the matter. Accordingly, my Department does not have access to the files in question, if such files still exist. Officials in my Department are reviewing filing lists and other records which are held to ascertain if such records relating to the "Departmental Council" exist, no such records have been identified at present.
The Department of Posts and Telegraphs was abolished in 1984 and any relevant files should have been transferred to the Department of Communications, however I would also note that the abolition of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs pre-dated the National Archives Act 1986 and therefore the obligation to preserve government records; so it is also possible that all files may not have survived.
