Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 3 Oct 2001

Vol. 541 No. 2

Written Answers. - Ordnance Survey Maps.

Gay Mitchell

Ceist:

363 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Finance if he will examine the concerns of a person (details supplied) in County Wicklow concerning the Ordnance Survey of Ireland regarding the availability of maps; and if he will take steps to alleviate the concerns expressed. [20980/01]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy):

OSI has no objection to its maps being available in public libraries for viewing and reference purposes. This is currently the case with OSI mapping contained in proposed road corridors schemes and local authority development plans.

It must be pointed out, however, that the maps themselves, either individually or as a set, have a commercial value and are made available to the public through Ordnance Survey Ireland and a network of approved map sales agents, bookshops and other retail agents. Were OSI to make these maps available with no regard to their commercial value, it would damage other parts of the product delivery chain. In particular it would commercially undermine approved map sales agents.

All OSI mapping is copyright Government of Ireland. As such it cannot be reproduced in any form, including photocopying, without permission. The copyright is administered by OSI, which is mandated by the Minister for Finance to carry on its activities in a manner designed to ensure that the revenue it earns for the Exchequer is maximised. Copyright and royalty fees are an important source of income for OSI. Therefore it would not be possible to make these maps available even at a small cost for photocopying.

In addition, there are other independent map publishers operating within the Irish economy and any attempt to flood the market with photocopies of high quality mapping may be interpreted as anti competitive practice in a commercial market.

The Discovery series maps retail at £5.20 for an individual sheet or a special price of £300 for a full set of 75 maps. Each map sheet covers a ground area of 30x40 kilometres on a paper area of 60cm x 80cm. The detail on the maps include every path and laneway with symbols to show individual houses and OSI is satisfied that the retail price of £5.20 is reasonable.

OSI has a variety of mapping products available. The entire island of Ireland covered by holiday series (scale 1:250,000) consists of four map sheets at a cost of £4.95 each. These maps are quite detailed and produced from a reduced data set of the discovery series. Also available is a complete road atlas of Ireland at scale of 1:210,000, at a cost of £8.50. This publication includes a gazetteer of place names with map references. In general members of the public would buy these maps and then possibly supplement them with a detailed discovery series sheet in an area of particular interest.