Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Cathaoirleach's comments which are constructive. I do not want to have a go at the Minister of State, Deputy English, as I understand his position, having been in a similar position previously when I have delivered a script. I appreciate he is representing the Minister for Justice and Equality.

I wish to correct what he said. EU law demands that we must either let companies represent themselves or increase the costs that are recoverable, or give legal aid. That is quite clear. The Minster spoke about the review. The Copyright Review Committee put forward sensible proposals in line with our EU partners. For example, in the Netherlands, companies can bring claims of less than €24,000 without a lawyer, in Germany, they can bring claims of less than €5,000, in England, there is no limit, in Sweden, no lawyer is required, and in Scotland, they are planning to introduce measures with respect to intellectual property, IP, rights through the small claims court, a system on which the Chairman has just commented.

The response the Minister of State has given is contradictory to the view the Taoiseach gave seven years ago when he raised the same issue regarding enforced representation with the then Minister, Mary Coughlan, and that was questioned with respect to item 213 of 2010.

I ask the Minister of State to ask for the Department to correspond with me in a factual manner. There are a number of inaccuracies in the reply I was given. The way the system is operating protects large businesses and gives no support to small businesses, with the effect that the only people making money out of this are solicitors and barristers. If small business people want to take a claim, they will be at a loss. Most of the time they cannot afford it, so no claim is taken. If we want to encourage people to set up small businesses, we must allow them access to the courts and at the very least they should be allowed to represent themselves. I find such onerous costs of up to €4,000 for a claim of only €1,500 unacceptable. The script that was delivered today was quite insulting both to this House and to myself.