Almost five million priceless documents dating back 300 years and kept in the Registry of Deeds are deteriorating through a combination of age, public use and environmental storage factors, a report has concluded.
The report, commissioned by the Department of Justice, examined the suitability of the building on Henrietta Street, Dublin, to house the Registry of Deeds, which is responsible for the registration and safe custody of all property deeds.
It recommends a fully funded programme of scanning and indexing of the documents to an archival repository to better protect and preserve documents while also allowing them to be made available online.
A preliminary estimate of the cost is given in the PA Consulting Group report as €24.2 million, including €21.5 million for scanning and indexing of documents and €2.1 million for building new archives storages.
"These costs must be seen in the context of the uniqueness of these national documents, their priceless value to the State and the responsibility of care that these documents demand," the report said.
"It is imperative that the documents in the Register of Deeds are protected and preserved and the information is made available in a more accessible manner," the report said.
It warned: "The current situation is that the documents and records held in the Register of Deeds are deteriorating through a combination of age, public use and environmental factors relating to the building in which they are stored." Public access was presenting a threat to the documents through handling.
"The complication here is the documents and records are used on a regular basis by the Register of Deeds, official searchers, legal search companies and of genealogical researchers," it said.
It also recommended the appointment of a dedicated archivist and two locations - one for the memorials, the original documents from which all others are derived, and the other for the rest.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell yesterday welcomed the report. He said by making it possible to carry out electronic searches, previously untapped information would become available for historians, genealogists and other researchers to access from anywhere in the world.
He said: "I am keen to develop this proposal further and to take the necessary steps now to protect this resource for future generations." He added that a project of this nature would complement other measures to modernise property transactions, including the establishment of a Property Registration Authority, reform of land and conveyancing law and the introduction of e-conveyancing.
The report said the Henrietta Street building could potentially be disposed of in a manner which would offset the considerable costs of a scanning and relocation project, the Minister said.
It was envisaged that detailed proposals would be developed in consultation with relevant parties, for consideration by the Minister and the Government.
Facts about the Registry of Deeds
• Houses five million documents relating to property deeds dating from 1707.
• Documents of significant historical and cultural importance.
• Modern-day working source of information essential to conveyancing of property and searches.
• Last surviving set of records providing information and insight into the past 300 years of Irish genealogy.
• 4.8 million memorials, the original documents from which all others are derived, currently stored in bundles of 300.
• Many records bear famous signatures of parties to property transactions, including Wolfe Tone, Wellington, Parnell, Daniel O'Connell, Yeats and Winston Churchill.
• OPW bought the James Gandon listed building on Henrietta Street, part of King's Inns, in 1813, and the registry moved there from Dublin Castle.
• 19 rooms on four floors are used for document storage.