Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I mentioned Athenry, but there was also an issue because there was no manual override of the automatic system. This is another problem in terms of health and safety. This was promised at Athenry, but it has not yet been delivered. In a situation where a train service is delayed or some other unforeseen event occurs, there should be a backup system to help resolve the issue. I accept that there have been huge improvements and that there is an ongoing programme in palce. However, we must take cognisance of all of these crossings and assess whether they can be dealt with. It is more important to deal with some of them rather than others, as there are very heavy volumes of traffic on main routes. The Minister of State needs to push this issue with Iarnród Éireann, particularly in cases in which it is clear there are serious problems. Fortunately, there have been no incidents reported, but we must prevent any such incident happening.

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