Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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47. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if her attention has been drawn to concerns being raised by Equity about the failure of producer companies to vindicate the rights of actors, performers, directors and writers in relation to intellectual property and EU directives and whether she intends to take action; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3721/23]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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Matters regarding rates are a matter for Irish Actors Equity which is a division of SIPTU. SIPTU negotiates and agrees arrangements and rates for stage and screen actors in Ireland. Matters relating to intellectual property rights as well as copyright issues in general, falls under the remit of my colleague, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

The EU (Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Single Market) Regulations 2021 were signed into Irish law by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment on 12 November 2021 and came into effect on the same date. These Regulations transposed the 2019 EU Copyright Directive into Irish law.

The new law strengthens the position of performers when making an agreement to transfer the rights of their work by requiring the following principles to be followed in making such an agreement:

- a right to appropriate and proportionate remuneration

- a 'transparency obligation' to help them access more information about how their work is being used;

- a 'contract adjustment mechanism' to enable them to obtain a fair share when the remuneration originally agreed becomes disproportionately low compared to the success of their work or performance;

- a 'right of revocation' allowing them to take back their rights when their works are not being used.

Concerns raised by the organisation referred to by the Deputy can be referred to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). Under Section 481 procedures, applicants must provide details of any WRC decisions in relation to the qualifying company, the producer company or other companies in the film group, and where those decisions are a finding against such a company, confirmation that the finding has been followed or an explanation where the finding has not been followed must be provided.