PAC alarm at data project 25 years from completion

ARTS Minister John O’Donoghue was last night accused of failing to get a grip on €35 million swallowed up by a historical database project which is 25 years from completion due to internal divisions.

Members of the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) expressed alarm at the way the Irish Genealogical Project has been allowed to drift and descend into feuding between agencies.

The 10-year initiative has swallowed €32.2m in taxpayers’ money from FÁS as a “make-work” scheme collating 28 million church and civil historical records dating back to the beginning of the 1800s.