The European Commission will refer Ireland to the European Court of Justice for failing to implement properly a directive protecting the rights of authors when their books are lent. It also affects the work of film makers and performance artists.
The EU directive (92/100/EEC) aimed to harmonise the lending of works by public institutions such as libraries and universities. Because book borrowing may lessen the demand for buying certain works, the directive gave authors the right to forbid the public lending of their work.
If member-states did not want to allow this, they could establish a right for authors to be paid when their works were lent by public libraries.
They also had the right to exempt certain categories of libraries from making this payment. The Commission found, however, that Ireland had exempted all public lending institutions from the charge. Spain and Portugal did the same and have also been referred to the European Court of Justice.
The decision to exempt all Irish libraries was deliberate, the Dáil was told last week.
Mr Noel Ahern, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, said the Irish lending pool was very small and the State had a policy of making cultural information available to the public as much as possible.
Yesterday, a Department spokeswoman said the official communication from the Commission would be studied and legal advice would be sought.
The Department is also consulting other Departments - such as Education - and will consult authors' representatives and librarians on the issue.
The EU Commission took a similar case against Belgium last year and the ruling confirmed that all public lending institutions would have to make the payment if it was not possible to differentiate between them.
The Dublin Labour MEP, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, warned that local authorities, public libraries and third level institutions may be forced to pay thousands over the Government's failure to apply the directive correctly.
"It is not yet clear who might end up having to pay in Ireland. A 2002 Commission report indicated that in Britain, Sweden and Denmark, the state pays. In Germany and Austria the federal and the regional (Länder) governments pay, while in the Netherlands, public and educational libraries are responsible," he said. He also asked if public or educational libraries would be liable for 10 years' "back-fees" as the directive should have come into effect in 1994.
Mr De Rossa said the Government must guarantee that any action it took would not result in new library charges or further cutbacks in library or educational services. "The issue of fair compensation for authors, musicians etc must also be fully looked at."
Ironically, this falls under the remit of Mr Charlie McCreevy who is now EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services. He was a member of the Government that transposed the directive into Irish law in 2000.
