As someone who has had responsibility in the past for the transposition into law of a couple of EU Directives, may I just say that any failure to transpose within an EU-imposed deadline is not due to any lack of will at official level. Within government departments, there is a requirement for monthly updates with explanations required for any anticipated delay. Failure to comply with deadlines is usually the result of the slow legislative process, lobbying from often competing affected stakeholders and often an unreasonable deadline in the first place. Political will also has an influence. Important to point out that Ireland is by no means unique in this regard although the bigger member states with a larger civil service are generally better equipped to do the necessary to comply with the deadline (which they may also have been responsible for setting in the first instance).