Along with the implications of the Google book settlement in the US, Irish authors may also see a financial impact from the public lending remuneration (PLR) scheme, which is finally to be introduced here.

PLR – the result of Ireland’s tardy implementation in December of a 1992 EU directive on rental and lending – gives authors the right to a payment when public libraries lend copies of their books. Initial payments are expected to be made early next year for book loaned in 2009.

Ireland is expected to follow the example of Britain (which has paid Irish authors for years under its own scheme) and set payments, which are based on how many times a book is loaned, at about 6 to 10 cent per loan, with an annual cap of about €7,000-€8000 (the British cap is £6,600 per annum).

Authors, translators, illustrators and photographers are all eligible for the scheme and must either be named on the title page or receive royalty payments from publishers. The scheme is not applicable to university libraries.

So far, the authors topping the popularity charts at Irish public libraries include Maeve Binchy, Marian Keyes, Cecilia Ahern, Patricia Scanlan and Sheila O’Flanagan.

However, 30 per cent of PLR is currently paid to children’s authors, says Samantha Holman, chief executive of the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency, “so it’s not all the big chicklit names that people assume”.

PLR payments will continue to an author’s estate for the 70 years of copyright given after death, but authors must sign up while still alive. This stipulation, which means writers such as the late John McGahern are excluded, has been criticised by UCD law professor Bob Clark, who noted that Ireland should have enacted this legislation 15 years ago.

“That’s almost half a generation of writers who won’t be able to benefit from PLR,” he said. “It seems the Government has transferred the cost of its own inefficiency on to the shoulders of authors and their heirs.”

Scheme details are at www.plr.ie