Sir, - The£7 million project to computerise civil registration in Ireland (The Irish Times, May 8th) is hardly hot news to those involved in Irish genealogy. The project to electronically convert Ireland's civil registration records was first announced by Albert Reynolds almost a decade ago and has been progressing at a snail's pace ever since. The document launched at the press conference admits that the completion of the project is still a number of years ahead.
Even a cursory search of the archive section of the Irish Times website reveals that public dissatisfaction with the Research Room of the General Register Office (GRO) is a topic that regularly appears in the letters column. The Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland (APGI) is well aware that complaints about the ever diminishing level of service provided at the GRO have been dropping onto the desks of the Minister for Health and the Registrar General since the late 1980, yet despite this the service has deteriorated rather than improved!
Given that the project is still so many years from completion, the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland urgently calls on the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Micheal Martin, to revise the current system through which the GRO serves the public. With immediate effect, the GRO should rebind all its indexes to the same high standard as those held by its sister office in Belfast and restore direct public access to the indexes. It should extend its opening hours and increase the number of staff in the research room to an adequate level.
Good "public service" should leave customers feeling that they have received a quality service and value for money, not that they have been herded around like cattle and then over-charged for the privilege! - Yours, etc.,
Steven C. Ffeary-Smyrl, Honorary Secretary, Harlech Crescent, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14.