Where are new rights for writers and artists?

With a general election looming, writers and artists in this country should be asking questions about the Bright New Dawn the government promised them nineteen months ago. 

In August 2005, the Minister for Trade and Commerce, Mr. Ahern announced in the Dail that the government would be introducing legislation “before the end of the year” to ensure that authors in Ireland would in future get paid whenever their books were borrowed from public libraries.

And he assured the Dail that artists would be paid royalties every time their original works are re-sold through the art trade.

The Minister faithfully promised that a “public rental rights payment system” for writers and an “artists' re-sale rights payments system” would become legally enshrined under the proposed new law.

The year 2005 passed and these much desired innovations failed to materialise. Those of us who stand to gain, however modestly, from the promised schemes are still waiting for the government to keep its word.

I would remind readers, and politicians, that it was not out of the goodness of its heart or a love of art that the government made these (unfulfilled) commitments. The EU Commission in 2003 was compelled to initiate legal action against Ireland in the European Court of Justice to force our government to implement its Rental and Lending Directive.

Such pressure ought not to have been necessary, and wouldn't have been if politicians were sincere in the frequent high flowing homage they have heaped on the “creative sector”. Most western states already have these rights guaranteed by law.

Many writers and artists are struggling to eke out a living, or to pursue a part-time involvement in their chosen line of work. The provision of the promised payment rights schemes would make a world of difference to many of them.

I have to declare a personal interest in the subject: I have had four books dealing with aspects of County Kilkenny's heritage and history published in recent years. All four books are on loan from a number of public libraries in the south east.

Under the “public rental rights payment” scheme, I would expect to be paid every time somebody pops into one of those libraries to borrow one of my books. This financial boost would be most welcome. One doesn't become rich on the earnings from sales of relatively thinly distributed local publications.

I am sure there are many people like myself who have put a lot of time and energy into their artistic or literary or historical research work and who could do with a little extra income to reward their efforts.

I suggest to anyone out there who is in that situation to make a point of quizzing their election candidates about when exactly the royalty system for writers and artists will become a reality.

They will be asking for nothing more or less than what ought to be their rights…and what the government promised them.

John Fitzgerald, Callan, Kilkenny