PLR scheme favours low-income writers

THE Irish Writers’ Union (IWU) was disappointed by the article (Irish Examiner, February 20) on Public Lending Right (PLR).

It was misleading to suggest that funding of public libraries might be ‘under threat’ by Ireland’s obligation to introduce PLR and that authors were about to ‘cash in’.

Proponents of PLR, including the IWU and the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency, never suggested the scheme should be funded from existing budgets for public libraries. There is no official indication that PLR should be funded from such budgets.