Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan.

Intellectual property issues are getting more and more attention these days. Unfortunately, far too often the issues are framed in such a way as to highlight controversy and polarise debate. In fact, there is much about intellectual property protection on which everyone can agree.

To arrive at a fuller understanding of the issue, it is worth spending some time considering how intellectual property rights developed and what role they play in achieving widely shared objectives. What comes out of such an examination is the conclusion that intellectual property protection is a vital part of social, cultural and economic development. Protection of intellectual property rights alone will not necessarily bring about this development. However, it is hard to imagine that a country could ever reach these goals in the absence of such protection.

The essential idea behind copyright is simple. Artists and creators should be able to enjoy the fruits of their labour for a specified time, after which the material becomes available for public use. Society benefits because this incentive to create will yield a rich and varied cultural menu for its citizens. Indeed, one can say that copyright protection is a necessary ingredient for ensuring cultural wealth in our societies. If copyright protection is important for reaching cultural objectives, then it is equally true that the theft of these copyrighted goods, that is, the pirating of cultural works, is a threat to the creative sectors in our societies. While there has been much press reportage recently regarding on-line downloading of music and movies in developed countries, in fact it is in the developing world that much of the serious damage is being done. Many new musical voices, new authors and new stories on film around the world have never been made available, simply because the incentives were not there for these artists to take a risk. They believed that whatever they produced would immediately be pirated - stolen - and they would not be provided the means to develop their talents.

This is not an abstract argument. It has happened on all continents. A good example is Hong Kong, where a thriving movie industry was so hurt by rampant piracy that, just a few years ago, observers were predicting it would disappear from the film making map. Today, the industry there is in better shape and moviegoers around the world enjoy new and exciting releases primarily because the Hong Kong authorities took decisive action to combat the piracy problem in their jurisdiction. Studios in the movie industry in Bangladesh went on strike in March 2004 to protest against the problem of piracy and to demand action by government. Similar developments have taken place in the world of music. Ethiopian musicians went on a seven-month strike in 2003 to press for better anti-piracy measures from government. These artists all understood the importance of protecting their works from piracy.

Ireland has earned a reputation internationally as an island of creativity that has produced some of the world's finest music and literature. For a small island of 4 million people we are unique in having groups like the Chieftains, U2, the Corrs, the Cranberries and more recently the Script dominating the world stage. Consequently, we need to ensure the intellectual property rights of these and all our artists and innovators are protected by law. The recent High Court decision on the UPC case to which the Minister of State referred can only lead us to conclude that such legal protection does not exist. This is very damaging for the international reputation of Ireland as a jurisdiction with appropriate legal protection for all kinds of intellectual property and copyright generally.

In his judgment, Mr. Justice Peter Charleton ruled that Irish law does not require Internet service providers to identify and disconnect illegal file sharers but cautioned that the lack of such provisions in Irish law technically means Ireland is not in compliance with European law and that considering its place within the European Union, the Government must, therefore, address the issue. Mr. Justice Charleton also condemned illegal file sharing. His judgment states that it "not only undermines business but ruins the ability of a generation of creative people in Ireland and elsewhere to establish a viable living" and that "it is destructive of an important native industry". From the wording of Mr. Justice Charleton's judgement, it is obvious he was most anxious to provide the kind of protection our artists need but that legally he had no basis for so doing. The Government must now, as a matter of urgency, do its job properly and implement the required EU legislation without further delay. Mr. Justice Charleton's judgment could not be any clearer on where responsibility lies.

With ever increasing broadband speeds, it will soon be possible to download a movie or a very complex computer game in a matter of seconds. Without the proper legislative protection in place, Irish businesses in these sectors will go to the wall. I believe the recent demise of the Chartbusters video rental chain, with a loss of almost 90 jobs, can be partly attributed to illegal downloading of movies. Xtra-Vision, our other major video chain, which employs 1,600 people, must also be under threat from this source.

Ireland is rapidly becoming a world leader in computer gaming. The computer games industry is an exciting field, currently outselling the film industry worldwide. Recent research shows that computer gaming is rapidly broadening its demographic user base. Industry statistics show that the average age of those who play video games is not 14 years but 34 years. Last year, a quarter of all those who played video games were over 50 years of age. The same figures show that two thirds of all households have a video game console or device and half of all parents now play video games with their children at least once a week.

Ireland is rapidly establishing itself as a world leader in computer gaming. We have created companies like Havok, which had its genesis just yards from here in Trinity College and which is now one such world leader in this field. Since 2007, Havok-powered console and PC games generated combined sales revenue totalling more than $4.2 billion in the US market alone. Computer game development is innovative and exciting from a technological and creative perspective, providing career opportunities for imaginative, logical and energetic people. To nurture such development in Ireland we need strong legislation to protect the intellectual property rights of gaming developers and their businesses.

This challenge we face is not some nebulous high-minded debate on the ethics or otherwise of illegal downloading, rather it is about protecting real Irish jobs and providing for the creation of many thousands of new jobs. I am informed that such protection does not require a whole new raft of legislation and that a statutory instrument would suffice to give such protection. Let us have that protection and let us have it now.