Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I congratulate her on her appointment, about which I was delighted. I wish her the best with it and I look forward to working with her in this House in her new role. This question concerns a matter which I know has been the subject of ongoing communications with the Minister's predecessor and with herself. It is the need for her to inform the House when she proposes to implement the recommendation of the Copyright Review Committee in its report Modernising Copyright, published in October 2013, concerning the extension of the small claims procedure in the District Court to include intellectual property claims up to the value of €15,000 as provided for in the draft statutory instrument prepared by the committee. This matter concerns the ability to enforce intellectual property rights before the courts in Ireland and, in particular, the ability for companies to represent themselves before the courts in lower value intellectual property claims.

As stated, this matter has been the subject of correspondence with the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Bruton, as well as the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald. I know colleagues, including Senator Kevin Humphreys, then a Deputy, as well as Deputies Simon Harris and Eoghan Murphy, corresponded with the Minister, Deputy Bruton, last year in respect of the matter. I have seen a response dated 1 June this year from the Minister's private secretary on the matter. While she recognises there is a wider issue concerning access to justice which falls within the policy responsibility of the Department of Justice and Equality, she states that nonetheless this also impacts on the area of intellectual property for which she has policy responsibility. I was delighted to see in the correspondence from her private secretary to this particular individual, who has raised the matter with me also, that officials from her Department are actively examining options to improve access to justice.

This raises a number of different issues and the individual who has brought the matter to my attention as well as the current and former Ministers' attention has a meritorious point. He points out that the Government encourages the creative industries to produce in Ireland and offers many incentives to boost the number of jobs in the economy but still has not implemented a clear recommendation from the Copyright Review Committee of 2013 concerning the need to improve access to a mechanism for enforcing intellectual property claims.

The October 2013 report of the Copyright Review Committee, Modernising Copyright, makes a clear reference to the reforms in England which established the special jurisdiction of patents county courts, now renamed the intellectual property enterprise courts. In Britain, these procedures have been streamlined to save parties time and money. The report went on to recommend that the small claims procedure in the District Court be extended to include intellectual property claims up to the value of the standard limit of the District Court jurisdiction. The committee proposed certain amendments to existing legislation as well as a draft statutory instrument to bring such claims within the remit of the small claims procedure. The recommendation seems a sensible one which would improve on the current difficulties with access to the courts in respect of this sort of claim.

In terms of our obligations under EU law, it also appears that the current regime whereby companies must be legally represented must be complemented by some mechanism to improve access to the courts, particularly in respect of small intellectual property claims. The sort of reform proposed by the Copyright Review Committee offers us a way forward. It is a solution that would offer easier access and an easier method of resolution to companies and individuals with intellectual property claims. It would also enable us better to ensure compliance with EU law.

I look forward to the Minister's response.