Regulations providing for artists to receive a percentage of the resale price for their work have been signed by the Minister of State in the Department of Enterprise and Employment, days before a High Court case due against the department.
The case is being taken by artist Robert Ballagh, who is seeking damages for the failure of the State to sign into law an EU directive which provides for a percentage of the resale price of an artwork to be paid to the artist by the seller.
The directive was agreed in 2001, and a deadline of January 2006 was set for member states to transpose it into national law.
Ireland missed that deadline, and Ballagh took the legal action, arguing that he and his fellow artists were losing tens of thousands of euro as a result of the State's failure. He told The Irish Times that he alone is owed over €10,000 in resale value.
Many European states already had laws providing for resale rights for artists. They had their origins in measures taken by the French after the first World War, allowing for the widows of artists who died in the war to benefit from the resale of their work.
Other states introduced similar legislation in succeeding decades and, by the 1990s, most EU member states had operational schemes. Ireland and the UK were among the few that did not when the directive was agreed.
The UK has introduced a scheme by ministerial order, which sets the minimum value of the artworks covered at £1,000 (€1,456). The minimum set by the new Irish regulations is €3,000, considerably higher than most European countries, where artworks worth just hundreds of euro are covered.
Mr Ballagh says about 80 per cent of Irish artists will be excluded by the €3,000 level. This will mainly affect younger and struggling artists, he said.
He also said the regulations put Irish artists and their families at a disadvantage. Ireland has sought a derogation in relation to dead artists, so widows and other dependants would be excluded. "Wherever there was a choice, they chose the option most disadvantageous to the artists," he said.
A spokesman for the Department of Enterprise and Employment acknowledged the regulations had been introduced in response to the court case.