Derek McDowell (Labour)

I will not labour the point, but it would be interesting to obtain some clarity before we come to Report Stage, or perhaps in the other House.

To elaborate on the point I made earlier, under the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003, the State is obliged to offer full-time jobs to people on fixed-term contracts once they have been renewed several times. What about people who have been on fixed-term, year-on-year contracts, who are taken into the Civil Service because of this Act? Are they considered new entrants under the Bill? If one is on a fixed-term contract now and is offered a full-time job in a year, is one a new entrant?