Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As always, the Minister of State is very welcome. The purpose of the Unified Patent Court is to fundamentally reform the patent system in Europe and Ireland, and to provide a legal framework. A single court ruling will be directly applicable in the member states that have ratified the Unified Patent Court agreement. This will enable patent holders to enforce their rights and defend patents in one single ruling, providing a cost-effective remedy and protections. Ireland reguires the successful passing of a constitutional referendum to ratify the Unified Patent Court agreement, as it entails a transfer of jurisdiction in patent litigation from the Irish courts to an international court.

At present, there is no single European patent valid in all member states. Instead, individual patents must be held in each country where the patent is to be applied. Applications can be made to either the national patent office in each country or by making a single application to the EPO. European patents are granted by the European Patent Office under the UPC. At present, most patents currently in force in Ireland have been granted by the EPO, which is a centralised European clearing house for patents. The Intellectual Property Office of Ireland, based in Kilkenny, has similar competence. However, most of the activity from a patent perspective tends to go through the EPO. These patents must subsequently be litigated separately in the national courts of each country, with separate legal representation and costs and with the prospect of different outcomes. Therefore, the main selling point of the UP and UPC is that it will create a patent enforcement that works effectively, efficiently and economically for companies and SMEs.

Sinn Féin understands the need for the UPC from a business perspective but there are concerns about how this will be put to the people. It will be a very technical and boring referendum topic and it will be difficult to engage with the public on this one. This referendum poses a significant question to the State and to its people. That question is the loss of sovereignty. What is the price we are willing to pay for this loss of sovereignty from the Irish judicial system? The Government must be clear with the people, with this House and with the country regarding the impact of this referendum on Irish sovereignty.

There is no doubt about the benefits the UPC brings for businesses, SMEs and entrepreneurs in particular but any handover of judicial powers to a European court must be fully explained, fully necessary, and wholly justified. As the saying goes: “Is the juice worth the squeeze?” That is the question for these Houses in debating this legislation. Are the benefits to business and the economy worth the transfer of sovereignty? These are significant constitutional questions, and has been recently proved, something being just good enough is not good enough when it comes to constitutional change.

I welcome the engaged debate on this Bill today, and I will be sure to reflect on the Minister of State’s contribution, those of my colleagues in the Seanad, and the contributions in the Dáil on whether amendments are necessary on Committee and Report Stages.

Before I finish, I also want to acknowledge that we have seen some progress with regard to the EU directive on platform work. We had a good engagement on that topic two or three weeks back, and I appreciate the work the Minister of State has done in that regard. I urge the Government now to engage with this fully in making sure we have legislation that is fit for purpose, and a transposition of that directive that really defends those very vulnerable workers we see each and every day on their Deliveroo bikes and so on, being paid an absolute pittance and being subjected to scandalous treatment in terms of bogus self-employment. I look forward to further work and co-operation from the Minister of State in that regard. We are very much interested in what he is going to say in response, so I thank him for his time today.