Copyright and Related Rights (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-24
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Michael McDowell (IND), National University of Ireland

I will elaborate on what Senators Conway, Higgins and Black have said. I ask the Minister of State to explain to the House where the initiative to transfer the Controller of Intellectual Property's jurisdiction to the Circuit Court came from. Whose idea was it? Did the controller say he was inundated with these disputes and, therefore, was overwhelmed and could not do the work and it would be better if the Circuit Court, that august institution that has not enough to do between its licensing and family law cases, take over this jurisdiction? Why is it that Ireland is deciding this? We need answers from the Minister of State on this because this is Committee Stage, where questions have to be answered. Precisely what advantage is seen in vesting this jurisdiction in the Circuit Court? Are the decisions to be made on the basis of higher quality? Another question that arises has to do with what Circuit Court judge is going to deal with it. Is it going to be the Dublin Circuit Court? Is it going to be the Circuit Court in Tralee, Galway or wherever else of an afternoon? How is the venue decided?
One of the points in the amendment in the names of Senator Conway and me is that, where an individual holder of the performing right is involved, namely, the artist holding that copyright, it should be written into any procedure that they can be represented by a collective party. However, as I read the Minister of State's amendment, there is no provision of that kind. The person has to be the holder of the copyright or the holder of the copyright in the sound recording. All of these things need to be clarified in the House as to why this is a move forward.
Senator Conway has drawn the House's attention to the fact that, as far as he and the people who have briefed him are aware, no other country in the European Union has decided to vest the adjudication of equitable remuneration disputes in the court system, which is an adversarial one. The British have not done this. They have a copyright tribunal or whatever. We have a copyright tribunal in the form of the Controller of Intellectual Property.
We are entitled to a fair and straight answer. Did the controller say he was sick of this jurisdiction, he could not handle it and it should be sent to the courts? Alternatively, is it the case that there is such a volume of these disputes that the office of the controller is under-resourced to deal with them? Who in their right mind thinks it is a good idea that, after a morning hearing landlord and tenant applications, new licensing applications for licensed premises and family law disputes, a Circuit Court judge is then, possibly for the one and only time in their life, confronted with the function of determining what is or is not equitable remuneration, how it should be divided and what are or are not reasonable costs of collection?
We need clarity now. This is the time for clarity, not on Report Stage. Why is this being done?

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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