Documents Archive

Cathaoirleach's Speech at 1999 IMRO Annual General Meeting

Opening Remarks and Welcome
It’s great to see so many of you here today. Your interest and support are crucial to what we do and, the Annual General Meeting gives me an opportunity to tell you about some of the things that have happened in IMRO since last year.

Before doing so, I want to welcome some very special guests that we have here today. As part of our growing partnership with organisations representing our customers and other major music organisations in Ireland, I am delighted to welcome representatives of the Vintners Federation of Ireland, the Licensed Vintners Association, the Irish Hotels Federation, Sky TV and Eurosport. They have agreed to join us today to hear, first hand, about our business and to take the opportunity to have a chat with us afterwards. I would also like to welcome Senator Donnie Cassidy who, as well as being leader of the Seanad, is also an IMRO member.

Continued Growth – 8% Increase in Revenue over 1997
To some of you, it might sound like a bit of a cliché for me to say that last year was a great year for Irish music, IMRO and its members.

You will, by now, have had an opportunity to take a look at the Annual Report and Accounts for 1998 which was sent to you some weeks ago. You will have seen that total income received by IMRO in 1998 was IR£15,682,873, This is an increase of 8% over the previous year. The increase was even better in relation to the amount that was available for distribution. This amount had increased by 9.86% over 1997. This shows not only an increase in the amount of royalties collected but a reduction in real terms on the cost of administering those royalties. This is a continuation of the pattern that we have become accustomed to since IMRO became an independent organisation and it reflects the continuing strong performance of IMRO as a collecting society. In fact, you will be pleased to know that in a recent international survey of collecting societies, IMRO came top of the league in certain categories.

Membership
Although the efficient collection and distribution of royalties remains our number one priority, 1998 saw IMRO becoming increasingly involved in the development of the membership.

The annual baby bands Showcase Tour, which gives an opportunity to unsigned bands to gig at major venues and join IMRO, was expanded.

A nationwide series of members' meetings took place which were designed to bring IMRO and its members closer together and identify additional initiatives for the support of the members.

Songwriting Collaboration
I think it is fair to say that the major event of the year in this area was the collaborative songwriting sessions in Killarney last November. I know that this was an outstanding success and it is being repeated this year to give members an opportunity to try their hand at this well proven and successful songwriting method.

Many of you will probably know about the Guinness World Record attempt that was made during the sessions in Killarney and we heard recently that the attempt was successful The song "Leaving Abbey" is now eligible for inclusion in the Guinness Book of Records. Congratulations must go to Liam Reilly, John Hurley and Brenda Donohue for this success. Keith Donald must be congratulated and thanked for the marvellous organisation and success of the whole event. I am delighted to tell you that Keith has very kindly agreed to take responsibility for the collaborations again this year.

IMRO Board Elections
Staying with membership, I mentioned briefly the IMRO Board elections this year. For the first time ever, we saw a substantial number of writers willing to put their names forward for election to the Board. This is a great development and emphasises the growing involvement of the members in IMRO and their appreciation of the importance of what it is trying to do. I would like to especially mention Eleanor McEvoy, who is with us today, and congratulate her on topping the poll in the election. It is really great to see people like Eleanor come forward and, despite a very busy performance career, being willing to devote her time to IMRO.

Congratulations, of course, are in order to all those who were elected or re-elected and thanks are due to those who were willing to put their names forward and who were unsuccessful on this occasion.

Works Databases
One of the issues that has concerned us all over the past year has been the IMRO works database and the problems that were identified with it. You will all be delighted to know that the efforts of Eoin Colley and Sandra Gunn are now showing results and it is only the remaining 'hard cases' that need to be dealt with.

I know that this issue has created difficulties for some of you, including your colleagues on the Board, but I can assure you that the whole exercise was necessary and justified, as we now have the most accurate and up-to-date database on Irish music in the world.

BSkyB Television and Eurosport
I am delighted to announce today that IMRO has agreed with Sky Television to act as its agent in this country for the commercial usage of its subscription channels. The main focus will be on ensuring that commercial users of Sky Sports, in particular, are appropriately assessed by Sky. We hope to generate significant income from this activity to support our general membership development.

A similar agreement is at an advanced stage of negotiation with Eurosport.

IMRO Awards Scheme
Many of you will have received nomination papers for the IMRO Awards Scheme. I am afraid the response to this was very low and the Board decided that it would not be fair to proceed with the scheme this year.

We intend to look at the possibility of introducing some form of revised scheme in the future which will allow us to recognise publicly the achievements of our members.

International Action Against US Government
On the international front, our efforts to improve the royalty flows from abroad are continuing. The legal action that we started against the US government concerning the totally unjustified copyright exemptions that exist there is now well on its way and, as we speak, representatives of the US government are in the dock at the World Trade Organisation offices in Geneva. We remain confident that they will be found guilty and will have to change their law. When this happens, we know that royalties from America will improve for IMRO members.

Royalties from Abroad
On the more general issue of royalties from abroad, we are very unhappy with the amount of these royalties and with the long delays in getting them to us. In fact, this whole matter was raised by Brendan Graham, during his term as Cathaoirleach, and management has been applying pressure on other overseas societies improve the speed with which they distribute royalties. Unlike IMRO, quite a number of those societies only make one distribution annually, compared to IMRO's 5 times a year.

A plan is now being put in place to ensure that our members get a fair distribution of their royalties from other societies within a reasonable period of time. This matter is constantly under review by the board and management has been instructed to apply whatever resources are necessary to improve the situation.

Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann

I said earlier that I was particularly pleased to welcome some of our industry partners to this Annual General Meeting. It goes without saying that those who use your music and pay for it are absolutely essential to your survival and it is only right and fitting that their representatives should be here today to gain a clearer insight into why royalties are being paid.

I know all of us here today appreciate the massive contribution made by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann to the musical life of this country. Its formation in the early '50s, in no small way, contributed to the revival of Irish traditional music. It has brought literally hundreds of thousands of young people into close contact with our music and raised it to the lofty heights with which it is regarded, both nationally and internationally. All of us in Ireland are greatly indebted to Comhaltas and the efforts of those involved in it in preserving this essential part of our national heritage.

It was only natural that the interests of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and the Irish Music Rights Organisation would converge, particularly with the arrival of the Internet and the information society. Many opportunities and challenges are presented as a result of the computer age and it makes perfect sense that the two organisations should come together and share each other's strengths as we move into the next millennium. Co-operation between our two organisations will be at various levels. IMRO will provide financial and expert support to Comhaltas in its numerous activities. Comhaltas, in turn, will support IMRO and its activities, both nationally and internationally.

On the international front, the Comhaltas network throughout the world will prove an invaluable resource for IMRO's efforts abroad. Joint schemes such as workshops, lectures, co-sponsoring of concerts, and articles in each other's magazines and newsletters will form part of the essential exchange of information between the members of both organisations.

This is a great development for music in Ireland and I am looking forward to many fruitful years of co-operation between our two organisations.

We are aware that the co-operation between IMRO and Comhaltas has been recognised by Government as an important step forward in the Irish musical establishment and it was gratifying to hear the positive comments on this from Minister Tom Kitt during the recent Seanad debates on the new copyright legislation. In that regard, we are also very grateful to Senator Donie Cassidy, who is with us today, for his support of the copyright owners' interests.

Mechanicals
In relation to the administration of mechanical rights by IMRO, I would just like to tell you that IMRO is making steady progress in its preparations for this administration and we hope to be making, further announcements about this shortly.

Thanks to the Board and Management
I now turn to the Board and Management of IMRO and I would like to express sincere thanks to my fellow directors for their support and encouragement during the year. I would like in particular to thank the Leaschathaoirleach Mike Hanrahan, who is also Chairman of the Public Relations Committee, Mike is always available to me and I very much value his support.

I would also like to thank Donagh Long who is Chairman of our Finance and General Purposes Committee. On your behalf, I congratulate and thank the whole management team and staff for another excellent year.

Thanks to Members
As I have said so often, our members are our reason for existing. Without your support we would not have achieved these great results in recent years. Your presence here today is a great encouragement for us and on behalf of the other members of the board and management I would like to thank you most sincerely for taking the time and trouble to be here.

Hugh Duffy’s Retirement
Finally, I want to turn to Hugh Duffy, our Chief Executive.

Hugh joined this organisation in January 1991 and there can be no doubt but the success that we have grown so accustomed to would not have been possible without his vision, commitment, drive, business acumen and passion.

Hugh retires at the end of this year and I want to acknowledge how much we all are indebted to him for all the successes he has brought to us. Not only has he achieved an almost five-fold overall increase in income during this period, Hugh has raised IMRO's stature and prestige, both nationally and internationally, to previously unheard of heights.

IMRO is now clearly established as a major force within the Irish music industry and, under Hugh's leadership, has played a full part in all sections and all levels of it. Hugh Duffy and his team have fully co-operated with all the Government departments in preparation of legislation and in other areas that are in the interests of Irish music.

We will greatly miss him but his legacy will remain on and he has put in place a very strong team, which is headed by Adrian Gaffney, the new Chief Executive. This will allow for the further development of IMRO whilst at the same time maintaining it as one of the leading collecting societies in the world.

On behalf of my colleagues on the Board and the entire membership, I want to express here today my heartfelt thanks to you, Hugh, for all you have done for us, the IMRO membership.

Thank you very much for your attention, I would now like to take any questions you might have and we will then adjourn for a cup of tea and a chat.