Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)

I wanted confirmation on that. Also, how many staff will be needed to administer the scheme, or will all be done centrally using an automatic system? Will there be a need for extra administration? As regards royalty payments to authors, will that be done electronically or by cheque? How long will it take before an author is paid? Will he or she be paid on a yearly or quarterly basis?

Section 10 of the Bill relates to the public lending of recordings and works and royalty payments to authors. Does that include CDs and DVDs in libraries? In Raheny library there is a good supply of CDs and DVDs. Obviously there is room for more modern titles, but there is a considerable stock of CDs and DVDs, and will authors be compensated, accordingly? Certainly, Fine Gael is satisfied with the Bill, which will bring us into line with the EU.

As regards the pirate market, I am aware that there is door to door selling of DVDs in certain parts of my constituency. The authors concerned are losing out on copyright protection and as regards CDs it is estimated that music artists throughout the world are losing out on billions of euro. Are there plans to introduce new legislation in that area as well? In China, for example, the estimated value of the pirate market is $591 million, while in Russia it is $332 million. This is a considerable amount of money that artists are losing out on.

We certainly have a rich literary heritage, of which we are rightly very proud. It is important that writers' livelihoods be protected. This legislation will help and they will receive the payment they deserve for their work. I commend the Bill to the House.

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