Authors to be paid for public library loans

Writers whose books are borrowed through public libraries will receive payment for such use from 2009, through a scheme worth about 15 cent for each loan.

Minister of State for Enterprise Michael Ahern introduced the Copyright and Related Rights (Amendment) Bill in the Dáil, legislation that will regularise copyright payments through the public library system. The Bill provides for a payments scheme with annual costs of €1,180,403, of which about €846,000 in total will go to authors.

Mr Ahern reassured Opposition TDs that the scheme would be funded from the exchequer and not from local authority funds that go to public libraries. The legislation was welcomed, but sharp criticism that it took legal proceedings from the EU to force the Government to pay authors their "fair share". The legislation was prepared after the European Court of Justice backed legal proceedings by the European Commission against Ireland for failing to properly implement the EU Rental and Lending directive, particularly in relation to public lending.

Mr Ahern acknowledged that "in this modern age of mass culture and communication, authors cannot be expected to survive on spiritual sustenance alone".

The Minister said the scheme was modelled on the UK version, where "approximately 5p or 6p is paid per loan and there is a ceiling of £6,600 per author". It was "difficult to estimate the number of authors who will register for the Irish scheme, but there is no reason to think that the authors who have already registered in the UK will not do so in Ireland". A significant number of the 33,000 living authors registered in Britain are expected to register in Ireland.

Fine Gael's enterprise spokesman Leo Varadkar expressed concern that "at some point, it will fall on local authorities yet again to pick up the bill". Local government projections for 2010 "show a €1.6 billion shortfall in local government funding. If this cost falls to local government and to local government libraries, there is a risk that the cost will fall to people borrowing books."

Labour spokesman Willie Penrose praised the role of local authorities for the "provision and maintenance of public libraries cannot be underestimated". Public libraries "already operate on shoestring budgets, it is important that nothing be done in the passage of this legislation that might diminish the finance available to them."

Finian McGrath (Ind, Dublin North-Central) asked why the Government always had to react to EU law. "Are we not confident, as a nation, to protect and assist our authors and artists without having to be told to do so? This is a constant issue in protecting the rights of our people, which should happen regardless."

Terence Flanagan (FG, Dublin North-East) called on the Minister to "keep in mind that libraries provide a great social contact point for communities".

Timmy Dooley (FF, Clare) said the legislation protected authors' "entitlements and capacity to find gainful employment and receive adequate remuneration for their work".