Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 62: To ask the Minister for Transport if he will publish in full all reports he has received into the collapse of the Broadmeadow railway bridge, Malahide, County Dublin; if he has met Irish Rail and the Railway Safety Commission to discuss this matter; the steps that he is taking to address the gaps in the railway safety monitoring system and the perceived loss of corporate memory in Irish Rail; if he is reviewing the level of funding allocated to the RSC in 2010 as a result of the Broadmeadow viaduct collapse; if he has requested a full report on all bridges on the permanent way; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12768/10]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The Railway Safety Act 2005 put in place a strong and modern legislative and regulatory framework for railway safety in Ireland. The legislation established an independent safety regulator in the Railway Safety Commission and an independent office to investigate accidents, the Railway Accident Investigation Unit.

In accordance with the statutory framework, an independent investigation is being carried out by the Railway Accident Investigation Unit into the collapse of the Malahide viaduct. I am aware that Irish Rail carried out its own internal investigation and recently published a summary of this report. The company has also submitted the report to the Railway Accident Investigation Unit.

The Railway Accident Investigation Unit is required to publish its report not later than 12 months after the date of the incident. Until this statutory investigation is complete, it would not be appropriate for me to make any comment on the causes of the collapse or the actions that are required as a result, notwithstanding the fact that Irish Rail has published its own internal report.

It should, however, be acknowledged that significant progress has been made in the past ten years in improving safety on the railway network through the investment of almost €1.2 billion in Exchequer funding over that period. In 2010, notwithstanding the difficult Exchequer funding environment, a further €96 million has been allocated to Irish Rail as part of the continuing investment in railway safety.

The Railway Safety Commission is funded by a combination of Exchequer funding and a levy on railway undertakings. The budget for the commission and the accident investigation unit in 2010 is €2.53 million.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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All we have is a summary of the Irish Rail report. Although we only have a few pages of summaries and recommendations, it highlights an appalling failure by Irish Rail management and the Minister to look after the permanent way. Only for the bravery and courage of a driver, and the warning we got from the Malahide sea scouts, Deputy Dempsey would certainly not be here today as Minister for Transport. In addition, the management of Irish Rail would have changed dramatically. We came within a hair's breadth of a desperate tragedy.

The findings of the report are astonishing. It mentions a misunderstanding and says that as time progressed, the importance of maintaining the weir profile was no longer fully appreciated. In other words, the Irish Rail engineers did not realise that the Malahide viaduct comprised a series of piers built on top of an underlying structure. They had forgotten the basic structure of one of the key bridges in the rail network. Is that not an appalling indictment of maintenance in Irish Rail?

Since the disaster, the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland has informed me that original drawings of the Malahide viaduct and other drawings over the past 150 years are available in the society's office in Heuston Station. I have a photograph taken 30 or 40 years ago of a train crossing the viaduct. The relevant information was clearly there, yet the report's astonishing finding is that people in the company had forgotten basic maintenance procedures.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I agree with the Deputy on one thing - that a very serious incident was averted by the quick thinking of the driver in question. We should all be grateful for that. I have two roles concerning rail safety, which are to ensure that the policy is correct and to provide as much money as possible for that. In both of those duties, my predecessors and I have discharged our functions as we should. I agree with the Deputy that what is contained in the Iarnród Éireann report, about forgetting in some ways what they should have been doing concerning the maintenance of the viaduct structure, is frightening. I certainly hope that the lesson has been well learned by the company itself. I do not propose to make any further comment on the specific findings because once we have set up the statutory body, the report of which will be public, the proper time to comment is when we have all the facts.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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When will we get the full report and the other two reports that I understand are in train? The Minister has a responsibility nonetheless. The Railway Safety Commission has only four inspectors for 2,000 km of permanent way, which we are beginning to add to now. It is an astonishingly small resource to monitor all that work. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport was told that the Railway Safety Commission has never examined this bridge.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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That is right.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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They had not looked at Rogerstown. Has the Minister asked Irish Rail's management to make specific changes concerning maintenance and the management of maintenance? Has he asked the company if all the major railway bridges in the country have been inspected, including Rogerstown, Malahide and elsewhere?

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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From inquiries I have made, I am aware that the company has reviewed all its procedures in this respect. It has examined similar structures. The Railway Safety Commission is not meant to do the job of the railway company. The inspectors are supposed to spot check, but the rail company and its linesmen are involved in ensuring that the track is up to date.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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They did not know it either.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I await with interest the report as to why they did not know that, if they are the experienced people in this area.