Ollie Crowe (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister, Deputy Burke, for joining us this afternoon in the Chamber. Fianna Fáil welcomes and supports this Bill, the purpose of which, as the Minister outlined, is to address a gap in the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, as amended, due to the incorrect transposition of an EU copyright directive. The gap was identified following a European Court of Justice decision delivered in September 2020 and a subsequent High Court decision in February 2021. The case was essentially about the distribution of royalty payments earned from users of recorded music between music producers and performers.

It is a short Bill but it is an important area. It is essential that we have an effective and fair legal framework in place to support copyright and intellectual property. As Members will be aware, Ireland has a fantastic reputation across the globe for the arts. We want to ensure that continues to be the case and we continue to encourage creativity to blossom in this country. As the Minister has said previously, the sector makes a very significant contribution to the Irish economy. Arts Council research published last year showed that the total spend associated with attending arts events in Ireland is over €1.5 billion annually. This includes a significant indirect economic benefit. Beyond direct ticket sales, an additional €664 million is spent in the broader economy on services related to arts events including in hotels, restaurants and bars across the country.

The legal framework in terms of copyright and intellectual property is strengthened and clarified by this Bill which helps the creative sector and will aid the sector in continuing to make a substantial contribution to the Irish economy as a whole. As the Minister will be aware, one of the major issues which came from the 2020 European Court of Justice case I referenced earlier and which has continued to generate debate during the progress of this Bill is that of royalties from non-EU countries. The court ruled that EU member states must pay royalties to performers and producers from non-EU countries if those countries are signed up to certain international copyright treaties. The difficulty arises where some of these non-EU countries, most notably the United States, do not fully pay equivalent royalties to EU performers in return. Historically, EU member states were able to address this by simply taking a reciprocal approach and limiting payments to performers from countries that did not treat EU artists equally. However the court ruled that EU member states could no longer take that action on their own as this is an area of law where there is a collective European approach. The decision to take reciprocal action must be done at an EU level. The court’s decision causes an obvious unfairness in the absence of European action in this area, as the result is that EU countries must now share royalty payments more broadly with non-EU performers, even when the same does not apply to EU performers in non-EU countries. This has resulted in significant income losses according to research, with Dutch performers indicating a 16% drop in income. Obviously, as the Minister and Members will appreciate, that is a significant income drop for anyone, including artists.

Given Ireland's reputation for the arts and culture, it would make sense for this to be a priority action for Ireland during our EU Presidency later this year. We are well positioned to win support across member states on this topic and we have no shortage of capable arts advocates who would be willing to share their stories and explain why we need to address this. I am a little surprised it has not already been done, given that the court decision was almost six years ago at this stage. I invite the Minister to give his views on this matter.

This Bill is welcome and needed. It will ensure that Irish copyright legislation is compliant with our international obligations and compliant with EU law. However, I would like to see Ireland lead on addressing the reciprocal royalties issue and take the opportunity the EU Presidency provides to do so.