Copyright and Related Rights (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-24
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Christopher O'Sullivan (FF), Cork South-West

It is a pleasure to be in the Seanad. I am representing the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, who unfortunately is not able to attend today. I have had a very good briefing from officials. I watched some of the Second Stage debate when the Minister, Deputy Burke, brought the Bill to this House. I understand there was some really good engagement on that occasion. This short Bill is very much a response to the Court of Justice of the European Union ruling in 2020. I appreciate the amendments, and I appreciate that Senators are advocating on behalf of a sector they know well. Of course we know that Senator Black, in particular, has a deep understanding of the sector.
While I thank Senators McDowell and Conway for proposing this amendment, I wish to explain why I will not be accepting it. The Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, as amended, implements EU and international law in the area of copyright. The Rome Convention is an international convention for the protection of performers, producers, phonograms and broadcasting organisations. Article 12 of the convention, which was considered by the Court of Justice of the European Union, provides that if a music recording is published, broadcast or communicated to the public, a single equitable remuneration is paid by the user. This is set out in section 38 of the 2000 Act. Article 12 of the convention also provides that this single equitable renumeration shall be paid by the user to the performer, to the producer or to both. This provision is replicated in the rental and lending directive. Section 38 of the 2000 Act provides for equitable renumeration to be paid to the producers. I did not realise "remuneration" was so difficult to say until I said it aloud. It is the case that there are different models in place within the EU as to how payments are collected and distributed. This is not at issue, and Irish law has not been found to be defective in this regard. Article 12 of the Rome Convention also provides that domestic law may, in the absence of agreement between these parties, lay down the conditions as to the sharing of this remuneration. This is repeated in the rental and lending directive, which requires member states to ensure the remuneration is shared between the relevant performers and producers. Ireland must therefore ensure that performers receive their fair share, and this is now expressly being defined by this Bill as 50%, minus the collecting costs.
Section 2 of the Bill before House sets out the new arrangements to improve this process. The Bill makes it very clear that producers must share the equitable remuneration with performers. In the vast majority of cases, performers will receive 50%, minus the administrative costs. That is the context in which we are not accepting this amendment.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-24