Vol. 3 No. 16
In accordance with Standing Order 79B the following message will be sent by the Clerk to the Clerk of the Dáil:
The Select Committee on Enterprise and Small Business has completed its consideration of the Copyright and Related Rights Bill, 1999, and has made amendments thereto.
Is the report agreed? Agreed.
Ordered to report to the Dáil accordingly.
It is an enormous relief to have dealt with Committee Stage of this complex but nonetheless interesting legislation. I thank the officials who prior to and during the debate met members of the Opposition to go through some of the ministerial amendments. The Minister of State gave a commitment that his officials will meet members of the Opposition before Report Stage to go through some of the major ministerial amendments. The Minister of State indicated he proposes to include a number of other areas on Report Stage, which will involve amendments that will extend to only a fraction of the size of this Bill but which would extend to the size of a new Bill in another matter.
I thank the Chairman, the staff of the committee and the staff reporting the proceedings for their assistance. I hope at times they were not too bored and were mildly amused by the proceedings. I also pay tribute to those who have an interest in this legislation. I refer to newspaper reporters, radio broadcasters, record companies, performers, hoteliers, vintners, artist associations, etc. Many people have had a great input into this legislation. The process of dealing with this legislation was probably one of the most democratic, as many people made a genuine input. I pay tribute to them. As a member of the Opposition, I found them extremely informative.
My colleague, Deputy Stanton, did an enormous amount of work on this Bill. I pay tribute to him for that in his absence and apologise for his inability to be here today. He will regret he was not present for the celebration of the completion of Committee Stage of the Bill. I thank the Chairman, the Minister of State and his officials for their assistance and I look forward to meeting the officials before Report Stage.
As they say in another forum, "I agree."
I thank the Deputy for that.
I thank the Chairman, Opposition spokespersons Deputies Owen and Rabbitte and Deputy Stanton, who is absent, for their contributions. It is music to my ears that at this stage we are looking at the back of the Bill rather than ploughing through it. The exercise of dealing with the Bill in the Seanad and us all working through the amendments to it on Committee Stage has been healthy. While there are many experts on this matter outside the House who know much more than we do about various aspects of the Bill it is our duty as parliamentarians to come up with a good Bill. We have done that. There is still much work to be done. I gave members various assurances on producing briefing papers etc. which I will set about doing.
Deputy Owen mentioned a list of people including vintners, hoteliers and others, and I also refer to people involved in education.
Librarians.
This legislation seeks to protect rights holders. We talked about artists in particular and Deputy Stanton mentioned another group that might like to meet me. We talked about photographers and people in the press. Many sectoral groups are interested in this legislation. It is our duty to strike the right balance in it. By dealing with Committee Stage of the Bill in select committee rather than in the Dáil, where we might feel more lonely, we achieved a good result, although there is much more work to be done.
I thank my officials for their assistance. I thank Mr. Jack Thompson who was absent for a short while and it is good to see him back. I also thank Mr. John Rutledge, whom members will know, Ms Patricia Phillips and Ms Sabha Greene. I look forward to working with the officials when we come to deal with Report Stage. I thank the Chairman and the staff of the committee for their assistance.
I thank one and all for their work on the Bill.
