Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE FOLLOWING is the full text of a briefing note prepared by innovation minister Seán Sherlock this evening, and circulated to all members of the Dáil and the Oireachtas.
TheJournal.ie understands that the note has been circulated for the information of members this evening, in a bid to minimise the need for disruption to the Dáil schedule tomorrow.
It is also understood that the matter may be raised during the Dáil’s topical issues session tomorrow, and that Sherlock is willing to speak on the topic if TDs wish.
We all subscribe to the freedoms, the opportunities and the access to information that the Internet provides us with. Ireland is home to some of the world’s most innovative internet companies and we are determined to grow our reputation as a location where smart people and these smart companies can continue to innovate in this fast moving arena.The last thing innovators need is a culture where the outputs of their creative endeavours have to be locked away or kept secret for the fear of theft. Ireland is very proud of the fact that we have a modern suite of intellectual property laws that by their very nature balance a range of competing interests and rights in a manner that is seen, right across the globe, as reasonable and proportionate.
Going right back to 22 December, 2002, the date by which every EU Member State had to have implemented Directive 2001/29/EC, every EU country has had to “ensure that rightholders are in a position to apply for an injunction against intermediaries whose services are used by third parties to infringe a copyright or related right”. Having that provision enshrined in EU law and the laws of Member States for a decade has not restricted the development of the Internet or innovative internet companies. On the contrary, the Internet has flourished.
It may be useful to explain the background against which the requirement for the amendment to the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 has arisen. In the EMI & others versus UPC High Court judgment of 11 October 2010, Mr Justice Charleton decided that he was constrained by the wording of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 and thus could not grant an injunction to prevent infringement of copyright against an information service provider (ISP) in the circumstances of “mere conduit” (transient communications). In doing so, he stated that Ireland had not fully transposed the relevant EU Directive(s). As you will appreciate, non-compliance with EU law is a very serious matter.
The “Mere conduit” principle provides that if an ISP does not initiate a transmission, or modify the material contained in a transmission and does not select the receiver of the transmission, it is granted a “safe harbour” against liability, by virtue of the e-Commerce Directive [2000/31/EC]. However, according to the same directive, this freedom from liability does not affect the power of the courts to require service providers to terminate or prevent copyright infringements.
As far as can be ascertained from the judgment (the State was not a party to the case), the type of injunction sought was to require UPC to prevent infringement of the record companies’ sound recording copyright, through its internet “peer-to-peer” services, possibly involving a “three strikes and you’re out” scenario. This is where the ISP sends three warnings of increasing severity and if the infringement continues, discontinues access to the Internet. It is sometimes referred to as a “graduated response”. I understand that blocking access to infringing online sites may also have been sought.
Two EU directives (the Copyright Directive 2001 and the Enforcement Directive 2004) require that the holders of copyright – authors, music composers, lyricists, record producers etc. – are in a position to apply for an injunction against intermediaries whose services are used by a third party to infringe a copyright or related right.
The Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation had considered that injunctions were available under Section 40 (4) of the Copyright Act and the inherent power of the courts to grant injunctions, which are equitable and discretionary remedies, granted according to settled principles, developed by the courts. However, this was not Mr Justice Charleton’s view. The record companies did not appeal the High Court decision and, consequently, the State has not had an opportunity to put forward its views on the legal principles involved nor on the construal of the relevant sub-sections of the Act, which we feel were not fully explored in the judgment.
The Attorney General’s Office was then asked (both by this Department and Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources) for its advice as to the implications of the High Court judgement. The prudent course, he advised, would be to introduce a Regulation to ensure compliance. After consultations with the Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, this Department launched a public consultation on the text of the proposed Statutory Instrument. The consultation attracted over 50 submissions from interested parties. For the avoidance of doubt, the Government has decided to introduce a Statutory Instrument to restate the position that was considered to exist prior to this judgment.
Concerns have been expressed that the proposed Statutory Instrument mirrors the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the United States. These concerns are not based on fact. The purpose of the Statutory Instrument is simply to provide explicitly that injunctions may be sought, as obligated by the two EU Directives cited above. It should also be noted that such injunctions are available in all other Member States of the European Union by virtue of the two Directives already referred to. In granting such injunctions the courts must take account of Court of Justice of the European Union judgements. These require that a fair balance be struck between the various fundamental rights protected by the Community legal order and the principle of proportionality. That would include, inter alia, the protection of the fundamental rights of individuals who are affected by such measures, the freedom to conduct a business enjoyed by operators such as Internet Service Providers, the protection of private data and right of freedom of expression and information.
In proposing to amend the legislation, I am particularly conscious of the importance of online content and digital businesses in the Irish context and, accordingly, am simply seeking to ensure Ireland’s continued compliance with its obligations under the relevant EU Directives following the decision of the High Court in the aforementioned UPC case.
I trust that this information will clarify the issue.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I drive by the building every so often. Looks fantastic. But completely out of place. Roads around it can be gridlocked. Whoever decided on putting it there needs their head examined. Should have been built outside the city, either at an existing hospital, outside the city, or a brand new one, outside the city.
@AnthonyK: shouldn’t look fantastic, it should have been a rectangular fooking building, that would provide a badly needed service for our children.
Costing f#€k all compared to the money that has so far been spent on it.
@AnthonyK: They were warned not by an expert group for a pretty penny and completely ignored the advice, advising for it to be built in Blanchardstown.
@den: bang on, a simple design would have been fractions of this cost but we need to pay for some consultant to deisgn it so they can win an award, also a green or brownfied site off the m50 would have made more sense. We’re stuck with it now, only power we have left is at the ballot box.
@The next small thing: they were offered a green field site for free, on the N7 I think it was.
@AnthonyK: correct, should have been a green field site ,not stuck in the middle of Dublin
@The next small thing: Why does it have to be anywhere near Dublin? The midlands is the correct place for a Central Hospital. The blindness of strategic decision makers is staggering. Parents having to travel for four or five hours to be gridlocked on the M50 is just wrong.
@sean weir: who would work there?
@AnthonyK: That was the Minister at the time and his friends in the IMO, who insisted it went there
@Patrick MC Dermott: The hospital needs to be based where the majority of the population is based and that is Dublin! Also where the staff can find somewhere to live!
@Gary Kearney: the majority of the population live outside Dublin.
@Fintan: correct me if I’m wrong, but there doesn’t appear to be any staff residences. When I worked in London, I was asked if I needed accommodation – it was available in all the hospitals I worked in!
What magic money tree is FG using to build the world’s MOST expensive hospital? Talk about fiscal responsibly. From the party who said they’d end the trolley crisis and that “it is morally wrong, unjust and unfair to tax a person’s home.”
@9QRixo8H: The Apple Tree.
@9QRixo8H: you think this is expensive…. wait till they decide to hold a tribunal into the building and cost of it after it opens…..ive a funny feeling all the Apple money won’t even cover the cost of the 10 year tribunal and the 400 solicitor and barrister that will be involved
@9QRixo8H: It’s not a magic money tree. It’s the squeezed citizens still paying austerity taxes. Income tax take was €36.3 billion last year and the VAT take was €28.4 billion, €5.8 in excise, €1.8 billion in stamp duties, €1 billion in property taxes, CGT,CAT & customs about 2.5 billion….. Excess corporate tax is going towards the wealth fund
@D. Peadar:
Six months after it’s up and running the people will see the fantastic improvements it brings to the children far out weight the cost.
so your bad mouthing is really a waste of time.
@D. Peadar:
I though the lefty left regard properly as theft, comrade
@H Woo: talking out your ar5e again I see
@H Woo: hardly when many consultants’ rooms are not even wheelchair accessible crazy it got this far, and took for a parents preview to point this out. I’m sure they are running like flies to fix this small error. So the hundreds of advisors couldn’t see this was a problem.
That’s only one of them. Location being the biggest, now diverting traffic away from city, as they know when it opens it will be a total s#it show.
@H Woo: what planet are you on
@H Woo: It is in the wrong location and is overpriced.
On and a number of years late in finishing.
So saying the truth is never a waste of time!
Bam should be held responsible along with whoever had oversight of the tendering process. Bam are notorious for putting in low bids, winning the tender and then escalating costs. Bam must not be allowed to walk away with their profits.
@Alan: No, the Govt needs to be held responsible for keeping to give them money. Plug should have been pulled a long time ago.
@Alan: The moment a large public project is awarded to BAM there’s two certainties:
- it’s going to end up costing a multiple of their quote
- the quality is going to be shite
Harris started the children’s hospital first, it was to be his legacy, with the grand design. He should be held accountable for it.
W@nker
@den: a…count….a…ble….?
Don’t be fooled, The Hate Bill will be back once they get re elected. All the Best.
@den: It goes all the way back to Bertie, who wanted it in his constituency.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: He wanted it to be a link up of the three hospitals , The Mater, Temple Street and The Rotunda.
The over spend of 2 billion is the equivalent of 6000 new homes that could have been built. Simple maths . Or 6 thousand families been homed. At and average of 4 per family The complete in competence of this government is mind boggling.
@Jimmy Donovan:
The Irish subcontractors who overcharged in this project should be ashamed of themselfs perticulery if they themselfs have children/grandchildren.
@H Woo: same as the one that did that feckin bike shed ,
It’s the government spending the money,they are the one who needs to be ashamed
Its working out cheap when you factor in the cost of a bike shed
@Kevin O’Connell: can’t do anything right in the country at all why do we get everything so wrong all the time
@Alan Moloney: And yet FG are top in a recent poll.
@Alan Moloney:
We don’t.
Google Manchester children’s hospital. Berlins Willie Brant Airport.
There now, no need to feel inferior just because you are Irish.
@H Woo: the most expensive building in the history of feckin history
Donnelly is responsible for the fiasco that is Limerick university hospital
@reg morrisey: the electorate can share some of the fiasco as well foe constantly electing the same useless gombeens
@reg morrisey: he’s not, HSE have operational control over hospitals.
@Pat Hazzard: he’s the minister for health the buck stops with him. End of story.
Just wait and see, on the day this hospital opens, the revolving doors will get stuck and there won’t be any milk in the coffee machines
@Ronan McGrath: as long as they treat people don’t think I would be too worried doors and coffee.
@Phillip Smyth: How would get in to be treated?
@Ronan McGrath: it won’t be missing from the coffee machines in the staff quarters anyway.
@Brian D’Arcy: could you get me in… have you any pull.
Incompetence on a worldwide scale, this is what Fine Gael, Fianna Fail & the Green Party have brought us. Take a bow Leo Varadkar, Simon Harris, Micheal Martin, Eamon Ryan, Stephen Donnelly, Robert Watt & Bernard Gloster, this worldwide embarrassment is on your watch. The most expensive Hospital build in the World, with yet again no opening date & no final cost. Currently at €2.2 Billion with €600 Million in dispute, that’s €2.8 Billion & yet another Bailout required. On top of that we have a failed Health Service & the tragic death of Aoife Johnston shows that our Health Service is actually dangerous & at the point of collapse. Stephen Donnelly & the highly paid Robert Watt are responsible for running this shit show & the NCH is symbolic of a failed Nation Micheal Martin on your watch.
@SV3tN8M4: next failure on the horizon is they won’t be able to fully staff it and some wards will be mothballed.
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: Having spoke to a sub contractor who was on site, the snag list is massive & very serious remediation needed in certain areas. The architect design has ensured that everything is complex, instead of building practically. Staffing in Nursing, Teaching, Gardai, Builders for the Dublin region is a serious problem as accommodation & cost of living make it next to impossible to survive. HSE bypass Irish people for jobs anyways as was exposed recently with people on panels overlooked & jobs advertised overseas
@John Mc Dermott:
Nurses from certain counties are trained to USA nursing standards, so more skilled in certain procedures then our nurses. But those skills are not allowed due to Health union restrictive work practices but still worth importing higher skill sets
@H Woo: I can never understand people who put party before the good of the country and it’s citizens.
These people work for US and in a real democracy that means we get to hire and fire them .
But we now have a head of government the was responsible for bring down his own party in government and was elected as a TD on the 5th count and is unelected to office at the moment.
@H Woo: Health Unions are not restrictive in their work practises. They are however very fussy about the qualifications of medical staff.
Irish Nurses are considered some of the best trained in the world.
While Success has many father’s, failure is an orphan….
Just curious how covid had any serious impact on the delay when the site remained open and building continued during covid. Sounds like a bs excuse.
@John: the entire project was shut down for an extensive period of 4 weeks at one point until Bam brought in mandatory covid testing once a week for all contractors.
@John: Production slowed internationally so there were likely delays in sourcing materials. Paying a premium could get your order pushed to the front of the queue. Costs passed onto the client. Additional welfare facilities, masks, sanitizer, extra cars to transport crew around with reduced occupancy, all the bells and whistles which were needed for safe working at the time. Over here in Germany, the government established guidelines for contractors to build variations based on additional costs due to covid. On one of my sites we argued an extra 15 minutes per man per day for additional hand washing/mask changing etc. With 40 people on site, over the 6 month period where things were most stingent, it was a nice little earner once approved.
It’s the Irish civil/public service Ivana – so NOBODY is responsible for anything. They’re only in charge, but they’re NOT responsible. That’s how it works, always had been & I doubt any party has the courage to try change it.
And remember when it’s finished will still have less beds than the 3 hospitals it’s supposed to replace, Crumlin, temple street and Tallaght. Mother of god a monstrosity with LESS facilities than th existing hospitals
@Ciaran Bolger: what’s mother of god got to do with it lol
@Phillip Smyth: fair enough!
@Ciaran Bolger: and how much to maintain a multi billion designer hospital each year?
@Ciaran Bolger:
Less facilities because three hospitals gathered together on one site, makes sence.
@H Woo: Fewer beds than the 3 old hospitals it is replacing makes sense to you?
Fewer beds with a larger and growing population makes sense to you?
Guys, we may have found the source of the problem – H Woo must have been involved in the decision-making process.
He won’t take any responsibility..he never does. The reason FFG and the awful Greens will be destroyed in the next election (despite what certain polls say) is because people like Donnelly, McEntee and O’Gorman, who have performed desperately, never EVER pay for their mistakes!!
@G: & what will be there ?
Donnelly is an abject failure. The amount of s##t he talks is unbelievable. A most obvious spoofer. It’s nothing short of scandalous how he’s allowed get away with such incompetence. BUT according to a poll today, 45% of those polled are happy for a continuation of the current Government formation. Just ponder that for a second and then ask yourself if the future looks any better? We get what we deserve!
BAM should be held responsible- they issued a programme and again have failed – penalties should be associated with missing deadlines , would have presumed this was in the contracts signed from day one .
@D: and yet they get more contracts , laughable
@DC: they get contracts based on the fact they csn bring the irish government to court to challenge the awarding of a contract to another contractor, its a threat that has been used for years by contractors, as there is a line in all government E-tenders, that the lowest quote isnt awarded the contract on cost bit the over all delivery of the works
Should have been in a green field sight in the midlands with access for everyone. Corruption and brown envelopes. This country is corrupt to the core. Politicians, gardai, developers, banks.
@Éanna o Sca: the Consultants faught to get it there beside St James ‘s Hospital & that who its built there
@Sheila McNulty: that’s even better..so the consultants dictate?!
@Éanna o Sca:
Hang in there pal,
Ireland in the top fifteen LEAST corrupt countries in the world.
Stop making silly claims.
@H Woo: based on what exactly?!
@H Woo: Ireland is in the top fifteen in the world, at hiding corruption Woo Hoo.
@Éanna o Sca:
Yea, try get staff down to the midlands
@H Woo: that’s complete bs
@Éanna o Sca: In the midlands, a long way from the largest population center and without the other facilities the hospital and the staff need. Makes no sense.
@Sheila McNulty: BAcked by the Minister for Health who happened to be an ex IMO leader.
Price of the bike shed is now the new “yard stick” to compare property prices [and everything else]
Sure Mehole will probably blame Sinn Féin, again, for the government’s complete inability to come anywhere close to the original budget. They were warned to find a new contractor at the start of the project and refused but sure it’s everyone else’s fault so much so that I’m not sure if the government had anything to do with building it and as for Simon Harris accusing people that they don’t want the National Children’s Hospital to be built for highlighting how out of control the budget has gone, well, people will vote them back in with yhe faecical response of better the devil you know is pure and simple stupidity.
@Brian D’Arcy:
He will only blame shin Fein if they are running the building sites in Dublin like their hero’s where doing up north in the good old days in cahuts with the UDA.
@H Woo: you see what I mean ,feck the country,just back the party no matter what they do
Re….spons…a….bil….ity?
Anyone at all surprised by this. So close after the big shed fiasco? BAM seen the opening and ran right through it with the hand out. Just out of curiosity can anyone tell me if BAM can be dismissed and a new contractor brought in, new contact with penalties for delays?
@Mick O’K:
No. only they know where the pipes are buried
What children’s hospital?
I’ll believe it when it happens!
@Padraig O’Brien:
Landscaping is nearly complete.
So not long now.
@H Woo: Just snagging and with a difficult building like this one, there will be a lot of that!
Who got that many brown envelopes at the expense of the taxpayers?
In June 2023 Varadkar said the new hospital would take it’s first patients in late 2024. The only people to pay any price for this debacle are the children who are still waiting.
Election fight , dogs fight
leprechaun vote for leprechaun
Lessons learned lads.
Next article: support surges for FG in the polls
Glad so many enjoying the ride.
Ivana who??
@Trump23:
Some posh bird
Absolutely, that dope is responsible for that young lady’s death
@Goo Eyes Delaney:
Nurse who stated her concerns about the poor lady did not go to the minster, she went to senior staff if I recall from the reports.
What type of money is the CEO of Barardos on?
@H Woo: They same type as the rest of us!
Meanwhile on another story here about Barnardos “it’s cold at home and there is no food” the shame of it rests fully on this government, scandal after scandal , dangle a few USC and Income Tax reductions and all the sheeple fall for it and they will get another term. Shame on you if you vote for this again for another 5 year term as you are complicite in destroying the country.
Think of your children before you keep voting for these elitist imbeciles
@DC: and your alternate is SF/IRA, Nazis and or hard left ?
@Pat Hazzard: blah blah blah borehole
@Pat Hazzard: so you condone their behaviour so you won’t vote for anyone else or you just a fat troll
@DC:
How much is the CEO of Bernard’s pulling out a year?
Defund the NGOs
@DC:
Is the CEO of Bernard’s home cold?
@Pat Hazzard: that’s it keep pushing the party line , doesn’t matter how many suffer
@H Woo: Do you what NGOs do and what they are funded for?
Or how they are funded?
Of course not, but is is an easy target.
Are all NGOs perfect, nope, I am sure there are a few bad apples but overall, especially in the health and disability sector.
The vast majority do great work.
Everything that politicians touch
They destroyed.
As with the infamous “bicycle shelter” at Leinster House there is gross incompetence and mismanagement at the top in Ireland and accountability is neither sought or expected. Until the “buck” tops somewhere this will continue and many more billion bucks will fall through the cracks of the Manwell mantra of “I know nothing, nothing.”
Donnelly must take responsibility as health minister for a bit more than only delay in childrens hospital.
Should it not read the opening of the hospital has been “pushed back” not pushed forward?
Common sense and working together with the employees at the pump..
Staffing will be a huge undertaking that’s going to be a major problem so we need an 100.000 through the revolving doors, and hence, here we go again loads more to complain, so it’s good we have hate speech out the way, get up the yard get in that door yeh good thing.
This needs to stop NOW.
Forget the building, pull out the contractors and sell it off.
No more money or this will NEVER end.
You can bet your ass there’s embezzlement going on with it, especially under BAM…
Ivana will take full responsibility for attacking family carers and cruelly not even apologizing.
Disgrace to the highest order. Why did it have to be built in Dublin and not the centre of Ireland on a green site and easier access to every family in Ireland. And yes Pearse Doherty needs yo take over SF ASAP. Us donegal wans show yous how to run the country.
@Bills n Stuff: Miles away from where the people are living, that makes no sense whatsoever.
But it is just another ABD comment.
@Gary Kearney: Gary are you aware that the majority of people in this country live outside of Dublin? Besides it would take less time time to get out from the centre in contraflow traffic to the proposed site at the N7 than to go across town. This hospital has been situated to suit its upper management and consultants, nobody else.
And Fine Gail is leading the polls again… closely followed by Fianna Fail… Hard to believe but that’s the reality.
If this was my own building I would be seeking justice court and compensation
Wow great speech
‘Co-location’ was the excuse given for building this hospital in the car park of another hospital. That anyone would have reasonably bought into this nonsense, much less our glorious leaders, defies belief. But at least the consultants will not have to travel far from D4 – which is the real reason this white elephant was approved. If you vote for FG this is what you will continue to get. Power corrupts.
@Conrad Shields: Now an even bigger joke
have your say