Joe Conway (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Good evening, Minister. I just have one question in relation to this. One of the stated thrusts of the Bill is to improve the dispute resolution process in cases where agreement cannot be reached between producers and performers by substituting the Controller of Intellectual Property with the Circuit Court. To what degree does that improve the resolution process? To the ordinary layman looking at it, the resolution process that entails going into the Circuit Court looks like a much more money-draining device than the Controller of Intellectual Property. What would be the putative relative cost of going through the resolution with the Controller of Intellectual Property vis-à-vis the costs that might be involved in the Circuit Court? For people who are resorting to the resolution process, is the Bill designed inherently to make them think not just once but twice and three times about the feasibility of going to the resolution process? Independent arbitrations like that would seem to be a lot more amenable and a lot less costly. A lot of these artists are fairly strapped for cash and may be setting out on their career. The Circuit Court is the proverbial sledgehammer to kill the fly.