Sir, – As a professional archivist for the last 30 years, I welcome the proposal to protect privately held records relating to Ireland’s institutional past (“New law will make it a criminal offence to destroy records of survivors of institutional abuse”, News, October 15th).
However, much of the damage has already been done and I cannot see how such destruction of records, no matter how malicious, can be penalised retrospectively. In addition, I do not think that there has ever been a prosecution, never mind a conviction, under Section 18 of the National Archives Act or any other relevant legislation. – Yours, etc,
DONAL MOORE,
Ferrybank,
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Waterford.
