VPRS 8089 Central Administration Correspondence Files, Annual Single Number System

This series consists of the inwards and outwards correspondence of the Central Administration Division of the Department of Agriculture (VA 618). The Central Administration correspondence system dealt with all papers relating to Departmental policy and all other material dealt with at a Ministerial and Executive level. Throughout the period covered by this series the Department of Agriculture was organised into (various) divisions and branches, each division at least having a separate registry. Much duplication of correspondence between the Central Administration registry and the Divisions existed until 1976 when the Central Registry took over control of all correspondence.Previous Correspondence SeriesPrevious correspondence can be located in VPRS 10163 Central Administration Correspondence Files.This series (VPRS 8089) was introduced in January 1965 following the recommendations of the Public Service Board's Organisation and Methods Section after their investigation and report on the Central Administration Registry Systems. Correspondence considered significant which would have been registered in the pre 1965 series was subsequently "top-numbered" into the new system at the start of 1965. Therefore many of the files created in 1965 contain material from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. The control records for VPRS 10163 do not give an indication that correspondence has been removed and "top-numbered" into this series. Neither of the control records for this series, VPRS 8092 Nominal Index to Central Administration Annual Single Number Correspondence or VPRS 8091 Subject Index to Central Administration Annual Single Number Correspondence, note whether files contain material from the earlier correspondence series.