Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

In paragraph 47 of the judgment, as the Commission points out, Ireland admitted in court to not having expressly and specifically transposed Council Directive 75/442/EEC on waste water and submitted that Irish law as a whole ensures compliance with all obligations arising in that directive. We submitted that we were not in compliance with the directive on ground water and contamination and now we have legislation, which is our defence, which must be filed by next Friday. Hence, the urgency of the legislation, in order to ensure that we do not have fines clocking up. Fines may still be imposed upon us by the court. We do not know, but we have no chance of mitigating those fines with the attitude taken by some Senators that we should not bother rushing the legislation. We must file a defence by 3 February.