Unfulfilled promises to writers and artists

WITH a general election looming, writers and artists should be asking questions about the new dawn the Government promised 19 months ago.

In August 2005, Trade and Commerce Minister Michael Ahern said the Government would be introducing legislation “before the end of the year” to ensure authors in Ireland would get paid whenever their books were borrowed from public libraries. And he assured the Dáil that artists would be paid royalties every time their original works were re-sold through the art trade.

The minister promised that a “public rental rights payment system” for writers and an “artists’ re-sale rights payments system” would become legally enshrined.