In response to Parliamentary Question No. 798 put down by the Deputy on 7 March 2017, I informed the Deputy that Government had approved the General Scheme of a Copyright Bill, the main purpose of which is to respond to certain of the recommendations contained in the Report of the Copyright Review Committee entitled “Modernising Copyright”, which was published in October 2013. Formal drafting of the Bill with the office of Parliamentary Counsel is currently in progress.
Artists who are employees in Ireland have the same rights as all other employees. In cases of self-employed artists, as with other self-employed workers, the application of competition law would only be a consideration if there are allegations of anti-competitive behaviour.