James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will speak briefly to the Bill as a whole before dealing with the specific amendments. Fianna Fáil supports this Bill and did so when it was before the House previously. We will be supporting the amendments from the Seanad, all of which appear to make sense. I do not see any issue with them. We are dealing with the topic of science and innovation. The Bill aims to implement and update various copyright directives and related materials, which is important.

I wish to take a moment, while we are on the subject of innovation, intellectual property and science, to refer to a cross-party briefing hosted by Deputy Harty on science and research at which many of the topics in this Bill and related matters were discussed. The Minister of State previously hosted a similar round-table forum in order to obtain cross-party support for science and research. I acknowledge the Minister of State's interest and involvement in the area. That said, there are still some outstanding issues in terms of funding and the fact that we have not hit the 2.5% of GNP target for research activities as per Innovation 2020. There are also issues around the balance between basic research and applied research and the need for a new programme for research in third level institutions, PRTLI. Such a programme existed previously and was a very important support for intellectual property development and innovation. Unfortunately, it has not been in operation in recent years, despite the obvious need for it. This debate is timely, given that we had the aforementioned discussions in the last hour as part of a cross-party group that is emerging. The Minister of State is interested in and supportive of what I am saying.

On the amendments from the Seanad, I seek clarification. I tabled an amendment in respect of the creation of an Internet archive or a digital library of the .ie domain. We have library and copyright archives of printed literature. There are copyright authorities in some of the universities and the National Library of Ireland would be part of that. One of the suggestions that came through from a number of eminent researchers, including from Trinity College library, was that we should do the same for the Internet, in terms of archiving information on the dot ie domain as part of the next wave in the copyright trajectory. The amendment in question was passed in the Dáil and I thank the Minister of State for his engagement on it. We tweaked the amendment a little to get it right and then we passed it. However, it is my understanding that when the Bill went to the Seanad, the issue was revisited and an attempt was made to push it a little further. I understand the intention. My amendment provided for the production of a report on the feasibility of creating a digital archive because I am conscious of money messages and other constraints on legislation. If I understand the amendments correctly, the Seanad attempted a more direct approach which has not worked out. That is now being amended again. The Minister of State will be familiar with the amendment to which I refer, having discussed it previously. As already stated, it was passed by the Dáil but the Seanad took a different approach. Where does it stand now? I ask the Minister of State to clarify the position.

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