Dan Boyle (Green Party)

The Minister of State, in his contribution to this wide-ranging debate, pointed out the current situation regarding legislation and intellectual property, the role which Ireland plays in terms of international organisations such the EU and the European Patent Office and its role within the World Trade Organisation. To develop legislation in this area further we must distinguish between the commercial application of intellectual property, such as the production of a good or the development of a new process, and the creative use of intellectual property, which is in need of separate legislation, possibly through the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism.

I listened intently to Senator Quinn's contribution, which concentrated, rightly, on the commercial application of intellectual property. In his contribution, the Minister of State pointed out that research and development is pinpointed in the smarter economy document released before Christmas. If we are to recover and sustain such recovery in our economy, the development through research and development of new pieces of intellectual property will be a key component of the new economy we hope for and aspire to in the future.

It is important our own legislation has sufficient protections in that regard, as well as the international fora in which we are involved, in terms of protecting Irish international patents. It has been to our detriment as a society and economy that in the past we have tended to buy in commercial expertise and the intellectual properties that go with it through our use of foreign direct investment. We could do better and learn from, in particular, the Scandinavian example where government policies over decades and generations have been directed towards trying to encourage people in those countries to develop a mindset whereby new intellectual property and goods and services are produced as a result.

Much has already been said in this debate about the economic importance of intellectual property. I would like to mention the creative side of things, which I accept may be outside the Minister of State's brief but which needs to be looked at in the context of new legislation. There is an ongoing debate about creative intellectual property and the production of songs, poetry and paintings, who actually owns them and secondary rights in terms of royalties. As I said earlier, there needs to be separate legislation on this issue which is not necessarily the remit of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Nevertheless, this is an issue in which, as a country, we have expertise.

People have skills and are plying their trades and earning foreign income from the country. The band U2 is an obvious example, notwithstanding the fact that many of its members choose to pay their taxes in the Netherlands. There was a time in the 1970s when the pop group Abba was a larger foreign earner for Sweden than the car companies Saab and Volvo combined.