Dan Boyle (Green Party)

That is even better. Copyright in the production of new medicines does not have a very positive worldwide use. We need only look at the incidence of AIDS on the continent of Africa and at how the existence of copyright and the insistence of many companies to earn full profit from such copyright has led many thousands, if not millions, of people to needless deaths.

Whether through our own legislation or, more importantly, in whatever regulations in which we are involved in establishing, I would like to see the development of criteria whereby copyright for medicines can be relaxed in incidences of epidemics and pandemics. The fact that does not exist at present means the balance is very much on the side of the copyright holder which tends to be the pharmaceutical multinational. That is very much to the disadvantage of the people suffering the illness. If we could contribute to this debate through our own experience and if we could develop a base for the pharmaceutical industry, our views would be listened to more than most.

This is a useful debate which I hope will inform the development of new legislation. I look forward to the Minister of State and the Department presenting such legislation. I refer again to the idea of having separate legislation, possibly from the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, to look at the area of creative intellectual property.