As reported in last year’s annual report, the regulations establishing the Public Lending Remuneration (PLR) scheme were published at the end of December 2008.
At the photocall for the PLR scheme were (standing) Jean Harrison, CLÉ, Samantha Holman, Irish Copyright Licensing Agency, Senator Mark Dearey, An Chomhairle Leabharlanna, Minister of State Michael Kitt, TD, Éils Ní Dhuibhne, author, and (seated) Sarah Bannan, The Arts Council, and Conor Kostick, Irish Writers' Union.
Minister’s Visit
In March Minister of State Michael Kitt, TD, visited An Chomhairle’s offices to promote the scheme and encourage authors to register. The Minister was welcomed by Mark Dearey, Chairman of An Chomhairle, and by An Chomhairle members Deirdre Ellis-King and Ruth Flanagan.
Writers Conor Kostick (Irish Writers’ Union) and Éilis Ní Dhuibhne also attended, as did representatives of The Arts Council, the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency, and CLÉ.
Collection of Loans Data
The collection of library loans data began in January 2009. A PLR loans module is installed on the library management systems of the public library authorities, and the data giving details of the number of times each book in their collections is issued during a specified period is transmitted to An Chomhairle automatically. All public library authorities submitted library loans data to An Chomhairle’s PLR Office in 2009.
Author Registrations
The PLR scheme opened for author registrations in February 2009. Authors were given the opportunity to either register directly with the Irish PLR Office or if an author was already registered with PLR UK they were given the opportunity to transfer their personal and registration details to the Irish PLR electronically.
A total of 9,657 authors from thirty-one different countries registered during the year.
An Chomhairle's PLR Team (l-r) Dorina Hickey, Brendan Teeling (Assistant Director), Eva McEneaney, and Rónán MacLochlainn, with Minister of State Micheal Kitt, TD and Senator Mark Dearey (Chairman).
PLR Payments 2009
The Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government provided €350,000 for payments to authors for PLR Year 2009. Payments were made to authors resident in Ireland in December 2009, with payments to authors resident in the UK and worldwide planned for February 2010.
Authors were eligible for payment if their PLR earnings reached a minimum of €2, while there was a maximum payment threshold of €3,000 for the top-lending authors. A total of 4,608 authors qualified for a payment in 2009, with five authors receiving the the maximum payment.
Acknowledgements
An Chomhairle would like to thank the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, the Minister of State, and their officials for their ongoing support, public library authorities for their co-operation in the establishment and ongoing operation of the PLR scheme, and the Registrar of Public Lending Right and his team in the United Kingdom for advice, support, and technical assistance.