Authors only receive 4c per borrowed book as library payments slashed by a third

Funding for payments to authors and illustrators whose books were borrowed from public libraries in the Republic was cut by a third last year.

Over €200,000 was paid to writers under the Public Lending Remuneration (PLR) scheme in 2015. The figure is almost €100,000 less than the total paid to authors in 2014, despite the fact there was virtually no change in the number of eligible books loaned at over 5.1m.

Last year, 5,611 writers from 20 countries received payments from the PLR scheme which is funded by the Department of the Environment. The average payment was €35.69 per author compared to €48.33 in 2014.