asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce when it is intended to ratify the European Convention on Patents agreed in 1973; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

40.

asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce, if legislation is imminent in order to immediately ratify Irish patent law in line with the rest of Europe, that is, to extend from 16 years to 20 years the protection for all products currently covered by a patent.

68.

asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce when the Government intend to ratify the European Patent Convention, 1973; and when the Government propose to bring Irish patent laws in line with the rest of Europe.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 27, 40 and 68 together.

The Government intend to ratify the European Patent Convention following the enactment of the new Patents Bill, the draft heads of which were approved by them in early September 1988. I have asked the Attorney General to arrange that the drafting of the Bill be treated as a priority matter.

The new law will, inter alia, incorporate the substantive patent law provisions of the convention and, on that basis, will be in line with the laws in the other European States which have ratified it. It will also provide for a patent term of 20 years instead of that of 16 years in the present law.

Would the Minister agree that it is urgent that this matter be dealt with expeditiously as some companies suffered loss of patent protection through the technical inadequacy of the legislation as it now stands?

Yes, and I had discussions with some of the companies involved. There is one company that has been in touch with almost every Deputy in this House about a particular problem. If the substantive legislation is not passed in time, we hope to tackle it through shorter legislation extending the patent term from 16 to 20 years as a short-term measure.

Would the Minister not agree that the fact that the company were in touch with practically every Deputy does not diminish the justice of their case?

That was never suggested nor implied by me. It is quite legitimate in the democratic process that a company contact any Member of this House. That is recommended as a practice because it works. The company in this case have a particular problem and we are trying to sort it out.

How many heads or sections are involved in this legislation? I ask the question, if I may Sir, in order to get an indication as to how complex the legislation is going to be, both in terms of drafting and in processing it through the House.

I cannot answer that as I have not got the information available to me. However, I can let the Deputy have the information.

Will it be a complex Bill?

It will be comprehensive legislation, quite a voluminous document, so what I may have to do in the short term to meet the problems of particular industries in the country is to bring in a shorter Bill extending the period from 16 to 20 years to protect the patents. This is being looked at. However, I will write to the Deputy and let him know the extent of the legislation.

In view of the urgency of the matter — the company in question have four major plants in Ireland — would the Minister consider asking the Attorney General to put a draftsman to work full time on the legislation until it is completed, or alternatively, if that is not possible, to commission a barrister from the library, who is not an employee of the State, to undertake this drafting task so that it can be completed within the next month?

As I said in my original reply, I have asked the Attorney General to arrange that the drafting of the Bill be treated as a priority matter. I will be in touch with him again as a result of Question Time today.

Because of the urgency of the matter, is it the Minister's intention to introduce some form of legislation before the end of March? As I understand it, something has to be done before then.

We have until about August to have the legislation before the House. The Deputy can be assured that everything that needs to be done to give the protection that we all want to give, will be done.