Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber today and I welcome this important Bill to the House. As a member of Civil Engagement, I worked closely with Senator John Dolan, who has pushed tirelessly to raise disability issues in the House. Having spoken with Senator Dolan and some of the leading organisations dealing with disability issues, I want to flag some of their concerns on Second Stage.

A key aspect of the Bill is that it allows for the transposition of an EU directive enabling us to ratify the Marrakesh treaty. As has been noted, this treaty, adopted in 2013 by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, aims to improve the availability and cross-border exchange of books and other print material in accessible formats around the world for people who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled. This is a noble, important goal and something I am delighted to see Ireland supporting.

It is widely acknowledged that people who are blind and vision impaired continue to face many barriers in accessing books and other print material due to overly restrictive copyright provisions and related rights. These are unnecessary barriers to inclusion that we should rightly be dismantling, as the treaty and this Bill are trying to do. They seek to require contracting parties to provide modest exceptions or limitations on copyright holders in order to share works in accessible formats, and for cross-border exchange. As a legislator, I am delighted that such work can improve a child's access to vital educational material that otherwise might not be available.

I will raise a couple of points highlighted by the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, NCBI, the national sight loss agency. NCBI is a not-for-profit charitable organisation providing support and services nationwide to people experiencing sight loss. It views the legislation as a positive step that will help many people in Ireland. NCBI's library and media centre is the main accessible book production unit in Ireland. It produces books in audio and Braille and provides guidelines for larger print productions. At this point, the library holds more than 20,000 titles in accessible formats, and it works as a member of the Accessible Books Consortium, bookshare.organd the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. The Marrakesh treaty will have a real, tangible impact on the media centre, improving production schedules, inter-library loans and significantly increasing the number of books produced in accessible formats. This is made easier by the fact that, as it stands, economic compensation will not be imposed upon authorised entities in Ireland for the distribution of accessible works. Such compensation schemes, which are optional for EU member states, make it harder and more expensive to produce and share accessible books. I am glad the Government is proceeding in this manner.

NCBI was also pleased to note the Government will not apply the second optional clause in the treaty, which allows countries to ban the creation of accessible copies if the copyright owner has previously made the work commercially available. This could mean an academic textbook cannot be converted into e-Braille if it has already been released by the publisher in this format. Again, this is about pushing for more inclusion and making vital resources like textbooks as available as possible.

However, the NCBI raised concerns about the definition of the term "authorised entity" used in the legislation. It asks that the definition be amended to mirror the definition used in Article 2 of the Marrakesh treaty. This has a wider scope and includes non-profit organisations that provide services "to beneficiary persons as one of its primary activities". This would slightly extend the capacity of non-governmental organisations, NGOs, to help in this vital work. I ask the Minister of State to respond to this recommendation.

Similarly, would authorised entities need to seek a licence from the Minister? The NCBI believes that its library and media centre, a fantastic resource, should be considered as an authorised entity for the purposes of this legislation because it has systems in place to maintain the integrity and security of works. I flag this issue at this stage of the debate. I would appreciate if the Minister of State would comment on this point.