John Cregan (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this important issue and I thank the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation for coming to the Chamber to reply to the debate.

This issue was discussed in the Seanad before Christmas and it has been the subject of High Court proceedings and a ruling by Mr. Justice Charleton. However, the issue has not gone away and needs to be addressed by the Government at the earliest opportunity.

Illegal downloading of music, films and computer games is widespread. The music and other creative industries are being badly hit by this illegal activity and many jobs are being lost. That is regrettable, while the Government is making every effort to put people back to work. In recent weeks the Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, has announced several new jobs. We can stop people losing their jobs if we tackle this issue quickly. Yesterday in Galway, further jobs were lost with the closure of retail units. Their owners laid the blame at the door of illegal downloading.

There is a solution to this problem. Mr. Justice Charleton referred to the further enactment of EU regulations and legislation and I ask the Minister to consider this. Something must be done.

There is cross-party agreement on this issue in both Houses. We are all proud of our artists, entertainers, singers, dancers, musicians and film makers and we have supported those industries for many years. We have produced world class artists and we are proud of that. An artist's work is to record an album or make a film and he or she is paid for that by the sale of the end product. That has been the tradition and a number of retail outlets have prospered over the years from artistic activity. Unfortunately, the trend is changing with the advent of technology and illegal downloading. I regret that this development is causing difficulty for our artists and related retail outlets. The time is now right to support these people.

In recent weeks, there has been much mention of the legislative programme to be implemented in the lifetime of the Government. I ask the Minister to give priority to this problem. This is a serious issue that needs to be addressed.

See this speech in context