The Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 transposed into Irish law, the original Working Time Directive 93/104/EC. This directive excluded a number of sectors such as mobile road transport workers, off-shore work and work on board sea-going sea fishing vessels and doctors in training.
Amending Council Directive 2000/34/EC of 22 June 2000 was adopted to include the above sectors, previously excluded under the original directive. The position is that the transposition in Ireland relating to the sectors and activities covered by Council Directive 2000/34/EC involve policy areas which are the responsibility of a number of Government Departments as follows: policy decisions relating to mobile road transport workers require consultation with the Department of Transport; off-shore work and work on board sea-going sea fishing vessels are the responsibility of the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, and doctors in training are the responsibility of the Department of Health and Children.
My Department has overall central responsibility for employment rights legislation in Ireland and has been working closely with the above three Departments given the fact that it had previously transposed the original Working Time Directive 93/104/EC into Irish law through the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997.
The position in relation to each of the sectors covered by amending Council Directive 200/34/EC is as follows:
Mobile workers: The Department of Transport is currently examining a number of policy issues, relating to decisions about the utilisation of available derogations under the directive, in the cases of (a) mobile transport workers – for "workers concerned with the carriage of passengers on regular urban transport services" and (b) rail and aviation workers. The Department of Transport has undertaken to advise my Department of the position in relation to any decisions taken in this regard as soon as possible.