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In July the Communications (Retention of Data) Bill 2009 was published. Its main purpose is to give effect to Directive 2006/24/EC on the retention of data. The Bill will allow service providers to retain fixed and mobile telephone data for a period of two years and Internet (access, e-mail and telephone) data for one year. Previously the period in respect of fixed and mobile telephony was three years. Section 2 makes clear that the Bill does not apply to content, thus giving effect to Article 1.2 of the Directive. The Data Protection Commissioner is designated as the national supervisory authority...

In November 2008, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources published a report on the digital terrestrial television trials conducted in 2006. One of the key decisions from the trials was to use MPEG 4, the technology chosen in most countries. Under the Broadcasting (Amendment) Act 2007 (see IRIS 2007-4: 16), RTÉ, the public service broadcaster, is required to provide a digital television service offering access to the Irish national channels (RTÉ, TG4 and TV3) on a free-to-air basis. RTÉ received its licence in 2008 and is expected to launch its service on a phased basis from...

In April 2009, the Joint Oireachtas (Parliament) Committee on the Constitution, issued a report on the referendum procedure prescribed by Articles 46 and 47 of the Irish Constitution. In particular, the Committee examined the current arrangements whereby information is conveyed to the public by the broadcast media during referendum campaigns. The current arrangements followed a Supreme Court decision in Coughlan v. the Broadcasting Complaints Commission in 2000 (see IRIS 2000-2: 7). As a result of that decision, broadcasters believed they were required to allocate equal airtime to the “yes” and...

In April 2008, a court approved a settlement of more than EUR 60,000 damages to five Dublin primary school children for breach of privacy. Their images were unlawfully used in the award-winning documentary film “Deliver Us from Evil”, about an American paedophile priest. Their parents had sued the director, the film company and the distribution company, all of California, and the children’s school. The school was granted full indemnity by the US defendants. The film company had contacted the school in 2004 seeking to take footage of the children at play for use in a documentary film about multiculturalism...

The Section 481 tax relief scheme for film and television (section 481 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, as amended, see IRIS 2008-5: 13, IRIS 2004-1: 14 and IRIS 2001-2: 10), has been strengthened by new measures contained in section 28 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2008. The maximum that each individual can invest in film production is increased from EUR 31,750 to EUR 50,000. The amount that they can claim against their tax liability is increased from 80% to 100%. According to the Chairman of the Irish Film Board, this means that Ireland will be able to offer a 28% net benefit to attract international...