I wish to share my time with Deputy Quill.
Private Members' Business. - School Concerts and Copyright Law.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I ask the Minister for Enterprise and Employment to review the Copyright Act, 1963, as a matter of urgency. I want him to amend the Act to ensure the right of schools to organise their annual concerts with parents in attendance without having to pay a fee to the Irish Music Rights Organisation. This amendment is necessary because of the attempts being made by IMRO to oblige schools to apply for a licence and pay a fee of £94.55 plus VAT. This figure is arrived at because of the need for IMRO to deal individually with each school board of management in the country.
IMRO has circulated schools with its interpretation of the present legislation and an application form for schools to fill out. It is argued that any performance by schoolchildren of any copyright music in the presence of any persons other than their teachers or peers constitutes a "public performance". Consequently, if parents or guardians of the children are invited to the school to hear the children perform the songs and music they have learned as a part of their school curriculum, IMRO insists that the school must have taken out a licence.
Sister Eileen Randles of the Catholic Primary School Managers Association has written to the Department and the officials have been co-operative and sympathetic to the plight in which schools now find themselves. Sister Eileen argues that having children perform what they have learned in school for their parents or guardians should not be considered a public performance. Such events should be explicitly excluded from the revised legislation. I support this view and ask the Minister to give it legislative effect. The CPSMA has studied the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act, 1988, and has made a number of proposals to the Department. These suggestions are sensible and should be incorporated in any new Irish copyright law.
In particular, the concept of parents being regarded as an integral part of the school community should be enshrined in such law. The White Paper on Education recognises in the strongest possible terms the role of parents in the education process. The Minister for Education will give an explicit statutory basis to the role of parents in education in the forthcoming education Bill — a move which will have all-party support. Further amendments have been suggested by the CPSMA which should meet with the Minister's approval.
Primary schools are hard pressed by inadequte funding and can do without such an additional financial burden. Such costs would be prohibitive and would act as a disincentive to the promotion of music in our schools. We should all do our utmost, IMRO included, to ensure music is given every encouragement in our schools. Obstacles should not be put in the way of the pursuit of this noble objective. Irish copyright law should be seen to positively promote music in schools.
It is a special event in the life of a young child to perform for the first time in a school concert for his or her parents or guardians. It is a valuable educational experience for the child, helping to develop self-confidence, discipline, teamwork and co-operation. It is also a joyful experience for parents. Why interfere by trying to put a price on it? It is a sad reflection on society that a child singing in a school concert is to be subject to a licence fee. I am reminded of W. B. Yeats's famous lines from "September 1913":
What need you being come to sense
But fumble in a greasy till and
Add the ha'pence to the pence and
Prayer to shivering prayer until
You have dried the marrow from the bone.
I thank Deputy Martin for raising this matter. I support his arguments. In my nine years as a TD I cannot think of any measure which has angered me more than IMRO's decision to extract royalty payments from primary school children and their parents. It is as naked a display of greed as I have ever seen. I appeal to IMRO to consider carefully the long-term effects of its proposal. The pupils of today are the audiences of tomorrow. If we decimate the audiences of tomorrow, the artistes whose welfare IMRO purports to protect will be the first to suffer.
As we live in challenging times, we ought to encourage more creativity, music and arts in schools. We should not take mean-minded measures such as this. I ask the Minister of State to use his influence to get IMRO to use common sense, decency and good judgment and to give an exemption to schools. If it will not do so, I ask the Minister of State to amend the legislation to require IMRO to do the decent thing. This measure will have to be stopped.
The Deputies will be aware that the relevant section covering the use of copyright material for education purposes is section 53 of the 1963 Copyright Act. It states:
53. —(1) Where copyright subsists in a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, the copyright shall not be taken to be infringed by reason only that the work is reproduced, or an adaptation of the work is made or reproduced—
(a) in the course of instruction, whether at a school or elsewhere, where the reproduction or adaptation is made by a teacher or pupil, otherwise than by the use of a duplicating process, or
(b) as part of the questions to be answered in an examination, or in an answer to such a question.
(2) Nothing in the preceding subsection of this section shall apply to the publication of a work; and, for the purposes of section 11 of this Act, the fact that to a person's knowledge the making of an article would have constituted an infringement of copyright but for the preceding subsection of this section shall have the like effect as if, to his knowledge, the making of it had constituted such an infringement.
(3) For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that, where a literary, dramatic or musical work—
(a) is performed in class, or otherwise in the presence of an audience, and
(b) is so performed in the course of the activities of a school, by a person who is a teacher in, or a pupil in attendance at, the school,
the performance shall not be taken for the purposes of this Act to be a performance in public if the audience is limited to persons who are teachers in, or pupils in attendance at, the school, or are otherwise directly connected with the activities of the school.
(4) For the purposes of the last preceding subsection of this section a person shall not be taken to be directly connected with the activities of the school by reason only that he is a parent or guardian of a pupil in attendance at the school.
From reading even this extract from the relevant section the Deputy will appreciate that the whole area of copyright law is complex. For this reason in 1993 my predecessor initiated a comprehensive review of Irish copyright law and to this end he established in the Department the intellectual property unit, whose function it was to conduct the review and propose suitable amendments to Irish copyright law, bearing in mind our EU and internationl obligations.
As Deputy Martin has acknowledged, the House is aware from answers to a number of queries on this subject that my Department afforded interested parties an opportunity to make written submissions on the issue of copyright law and met with most of these parties to afford them the opportunity to add orally to the written submissions they had made. The Deputy will be pleased to know that the Department has now commenced the onerous task of preparing draft heads of legislation on this subject. I have also met IMRO and indicated to its representatives my general support for what it has set out to do, that is, to act on behalf of the creative community and collect the rewards to which artistes are entitled in respect of commercial success of their work.
In the context of the review the Department also received representations from the Department of Education and the Catholic Primary Managers Association on the subject of the use of music for educational purposes and both bodies have suggested a change to the law along the lines proposed tonight. The arguments put forward mirror exactly the points raised by the Deputies.
The Department has also received representations from the Irish Music Rights' Organisation on this question. IMRO has argued that the authors of copyright works should not be the ones to indirectly fund the education system. Do the artistes on whose behalf IMRO collects agree with the hard line in relation to their property rights? IMRO has also argued that Ireland's international obligations in the copyright field under Articles 9 and 10 of the Berne Convention do not allow Ireland to introduce any amendment to our legislation which would conflict with the normal exploitation of the work and unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author.
I accept the legal position; however, I also have to ask as a citizen if IMRO is serious in what it is reportedly attempting. If it is serious, one wonders what members of the creative community who have given their allegience to IMRO think. I ask the likes of Bono, the Cranberries and the Chieftains if they ever intended, when IMRO was set up and they gave it their backing, that the organisation would hit our primary schools in the manner reported. Do they approve of schools, the children and their parents being faced with this demand in relation to the use of their music in school concerts, minor fund raising events, children's discos and the like?
There is another side to the issue. This Government and its predecessor have pursued a policy that very much favours, supports and encourages the creative community in Ireland. We have a Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht with the Minister of full Cabinet rank. We have a policy of grant aiding and supporting by means of tax relief the work of this creative community. For example, this year the music industry has been given its own version of BES tax relief. No one objects to artistes achieving their just rewards and the fruits of success but, as Deputy Quill said, that should not mean common sense going out the window.
Given our existing international commitments in the copyright arena, in particular Articles 9 and 10 of the Berne Convention, I do not believe the law offers great possibilities for achieving a practical and equitable solution to this problem. However, I believe that, given good will on both sides, a negotiated solution to this problem is feasible and I strongly urge the parties to redouble their efforts in this respect. It is undoubtedly true that international law and national law in all countries that are a party to the Berne Convention give the authors exclusive rights over all public performances and a remuneration right. Although we cannot change that, we cannot believe it is really their intent to demand payment of fees for such performances in schools. I ask the owners of rights in Ireland to ensure that a civilised solution is arrived at which recognises the special position of schools.
As has been requested, I will take this matter up with IMRO because it would be incredible if its undeniable legal rights were exercised in an unreasonable way in relation to schools.
The Dáil adjourned at 9.5 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 24 April 1996.