Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht thanks the Senator for raising this issue. Legal deposit legislation is an important instrument in national cultural policy. In most countries it is relied on to ensure the published output of the nation is collected and preserved by one or more prescribed institutions in order that citizens and researchers within the country and abroad will be guaranteed permanent access to the intellectual and cultural memory of the nation.

Under the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, there are 13 prescribed institutions that are legal deposit libraries, of which the National Library of Ireland Is one. The remainder include the main university libraries such as Trinity College Dublin, the National University of Ireland and the University of Limerick, as well as UK-based libraries such as the British Library and the national libraries of Wales and Scotland. Last year the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht undertook a public consultation process on the legal deposit of published digital material in the 21st century in the context of copyright legislation. A total of 42 submissions were received in response from members of the public, publishers and the library and archives community. In the consultation process the views of stakeholder were sought on whether policy on legal deposit should include the collecting, preserving and making available of all contemporary publication formats, including online digital formats such as websites.

I will summarise the findings of the consultation process. There was general agreement that a failure to provide for policy extensions to keep pace with technology would have serious consequences for academic research and access to information for Irish citizens and could lead to an increasing digital black hole. There are opportunities to innovate and explore new ways of interrogating data, as well as recognition of the fundamental principle of the provision of continuing access to information as part of a fully functioning society. Access to material under copyright should be balanced with respect for the privacy of the individual, the rights of content creators and publishers, for whom their content is their economic livelihood. Responses from national libraries in other European countries highlighted the fact that such legislation was in situin their countries and was, in effect, a best international practice requirement in this area.

The Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 is the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation. In March the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation published the Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Law Provisions Bill 2018, which includes a provision to amend the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 aimed at broadening the copyright deposit system to enable existing copyright deposit institutions to accept published material in digital format, as well as, or instead of, physical copies.This amendment is aimed at broadening the copyright deposit system to enable existing copyright deposit institutions to accept published material in digital format as well as, or instead of, physical copies. The amendment will allow copyright deposit institutions to accept publications in electronic format on a voluntary basis while creating an obligation on publishers to comply with any request for such material in electronic format. The Bill is on Second Stage in the Dáil and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht continues to liaise with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation regarding it.