Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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382. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development her views on whether public lending right payments to writers for loans of their books through the library system should be made on the loans of ebooks; and if she will amend Statutory Instrument 597 of 2008 accordingly. [61092/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Copyright and Related Rights (Public Lending Remuneration Scheme) Regulations 2008 (S.I. No 597 of 2008) provide for a Public Lending Remuneration (PLR) Scheme in respect of the public library service. PLR is the mechanism by which authors receive payment for the loans of their books by public libraries. However, under these regulations, only printed books qualify for PLR.

My Department has paid €2.8m in PLR since 2009 and remains committed to the PLR scheme with payments in respect of books loaned in 2020 issuing to authors this week.

I have received correspondence from the Irish Writers Union requesting an amendment to the Regulations to incorporate ebooks into the PLR scheme and this is currently under consideration by my Department in consultation with the Libraries Development Unit in the Local Government Management Agency.