Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Question 67: To ask the Minister for Transport the discussion he has had with Irish Rail over failed safety monitoring systems prior to the collapse of the viaduct at Malahide, County Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12837/10]

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 79: To ask the Minister for Transport the steps taken to ensure safety on our railways; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12804/10]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 67 and 79 together.

I refer the Deputy to my reply to Priority Question No. 62, answered today.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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The key point is that journal 143 of the Irish Railway Record Society, which can be referenced very easily on the Internet, would indicate to Irish Rail, the Minister, me or anyone who cared to look at it, the issue of the Malahide viaduct and how it was constructed. There is a 12 page article on it by a gentleman who works for Irish Rail, Oliver Doyle. I find it entirely unacceptable that Irish Rail can have a self-serving summary of the conclusions of the report without the complete report being published. Is it not a fact that Irish Rail should publish the complete report?

The regulator, which is the Railway Safety Commission, has served a compliance order on Irish Rail with regard to the Malahide viaduct, the content of which it is refusing to disclose. To have confidence in railway safety, and Question No. 75 from Deputy Jim O'Keeffe also covers this, we need to know exactly what the Railway Safety Commission specifically stated to Irish Rail about the Malahide viaduct. That should not and does not in any way prejudice the accident investigation unit, which is an entirely different and separate activity. I want to know what is going on, what the Railway Safety Commission knows and what it stated.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I hope and expect, and by law I know, we will get the report from the railway accident investigation unit, which is independent of, but part of, the Railway Safety Commission. I agree with the Deputy that the maximum amount of information must be made available and made public. However, all of the facts and investigation should be completed and then all of the information should be made available. The report has to come out within 12 months from when it was commissioned so a maximum of four months remains. It can do the report earlier and I hope it would be in a position to do so.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Separate to anything else, the Railway Safety Commission has made a finding on the Malahide viaduct and I believe the contents of that report are very significant and I want to know what they are. The key issue is that the Government promised to make the Railway Safety Commission operate under the Freedom of Information Act. The statement of strategy of the Railway Safety Commission, which is on the Internet, states that pending that order being made it will abide by the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act and make information available in a free and proper manner. It is refusing to do so. It creates concerns for me and all travellers on that line that it refuses to do so. It is not good enough. I should not need to have a conversation with the person who is acting head as that person should respond to my freedom of information request, which is an entirely separate matter to the railway special investigation unit.

I do not know whether the Minister has the same view but I believe Irish Rail's attitude to all of this is shameful, disgraceful and self-serving. Hundreds of people could very easily have died in that accident. It did not do enough to make it safe. In 1998-----

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy should ask a question and not give information.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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-----an initial report on safety adequacy found that it was one of the most potentially dangerous locations in the country for a rail accident.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Deputy provide me with a note on what he has raised? I do not want to give a commitment that I will be able to give the Deputy that particular report because as I understand it the report may feed into the investigation unit. I agree that we should have maximum information if it will not prejudice the investigation.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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I support the call. We should have the three reports in full. The bit of information we have raises many questions. It reaches a damning conclusion but it raises many questions. Was the Minister shocked by the reference that the 2006 scour report, which Irish Rail conducted, decided it would investigate only underneath the piers six years later, in 2012? That seems an indictment of maintenance procedures. It is incumbent on the Minister to publish it. Questions must be raised about the Railway Safety Commission. We passed the Bill to establish the commission five years ago and it was established four years ago. It has very small resources and I felt its performance at a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport was not sufficient and that was before this near disaster occurred. Will the Minister review everything about the Railway Safety Commission? The history of recent years reveals that a series of regulators, from the banking industry to building control, was not just light touch but non-existent. Was railway safety part of the same cancer, in other words non-regulation? The Minister should look at the commission as well as at Irish Rail.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is being unduly harsh on the Railway Safety Commission, if he does not mind me saying so. We have had an excellent record up to this particular incident, which I agree could have been a huge disaster. Once we have the report I want maximum disclosure and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport could review it. If issues arise for any agency, body or the company itself we should discuss them.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I support my two colleagues' call for full transparency on the investigations taking place. The Government has a terrible tendency to delay reports. It is eight years since a young child died in care and we are receiving the report now. However, I will stick to the Malahide issue, which was extremely serious and in which several hundred people could have drowned. The report and the bit of information we have to date suggests that nobody knew and it was nobody's fault because people left and they did not tell other people. What sort of a company are we running? We are back to PPARS - nobody is responsible or accountable. Fortunately, nobody was killed. Is this lack of culpability, responsibility, accountability and transparency in a semi-State body acceptable to the Minister?

It is not acceptable to me or to people in my constituency or elsewhere in Ireland.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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Everyone should be fully accountable for actions or lack thereof in particular areas within this company or any other. However, the normal manner in which this is done is within the company. The board, in the form of the chairman and board members, is there to do so.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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They are not doing so.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I reiterate it is my understanding that apart from the separate investigations to be conducted by the Railway Accident Investigation Unit, RAIU, Irish Rail also conducted its own internal review and report in this regard. All the details and data have been passed on to the RAIU and I am sure this also will be referred to in the report. I agree with the Deputy on one point, which is there should be transparency and openness and people should know the exact position. However, people should be given the opportunity to do a thorough job in investigating before producing a report.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Will the Minister sign the requisite freedom of information order?