Wednesday 13 June 2012

'Ill-conceived' merger attracts more criticism

The controversial proposal to merge the National Archives, National Library and Irish Manuscript Commission received another thumbs down today from Dr Raymond Refaussé, chair of the Irish Society for Archives (he is also well-known to genealogists as Librarian and Archivist at the Representative Church Body Library — the Church of Ireland archive).

In a letter published in today's Irish Times, Dr Refaussé comments that 'the Government has refused to accept the expert advice of the academic and archival communities to abandon its ill-conceived policy'. He argues that 'no significant economies' would be made by any such merger without doing significant harm to the three institutions. He describes them as 'already shockingly under-resourced'.

You can read the letter here: Expert advice on mergers refused.

Two days ago, the Association of Professional Genealogists of Ireland declared that Ireland's cultural institutions are in crisis and described the Government's merger proposals as 'ill advised'. See the full statement here.