Senator Coghlan mentioned the delay in the publication of the Bill and the European Commission. As regards the delay, the date of transposition of the directive was set at 10 July 2001. The European Commission referred Ireland to the European Court of Justice for failure to implement the directive in time. In that context, we have sent to the court a copy of the Bill as published as an indication of the Government's intention to fully implement the directive. The main reason for the delay was the preoccupation of the relevant section in the Department with the carer's leave and part-time work Bills which had been given priority. However, when these measures were enacted towards the end of 2001, priority was then given to the implementation of the fixed-term work directive.