Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

The laws governing railway safety date back, in the most part, to Victorian times. They are no longer appropriate for the railway systems of today and need to be updated. Safety is and must remain top of the agenda in the provision of rail services. This applies to both customers and staff working on the railway. The number of people using rail services is, I am glad to say, increasing on a regular basis and it is essential for all involved that standards of safety keep pace with the ever-increasing demand.

We have heard the great news concerning Transport 21, the ten-year transport investment plan the Department of Transport launched last Tuesday. The plan will result in a significant enhancement and expansion of the railway network at national level, including the western corridor, and in the greater Dublin area. Therefore, it is imperative that we have in place a modern regulatory framework for overseeing railway safety.

This Bill will ensure that the ongoing investment in our railways is accompanied by the introduction of effective formal safety management systems and that these systems are independently validated. The primary purposes of the Bill are as follows: to establish an independent statutory public body, the Railway Safety Commission, with wide-ranging powers of inspection, investigation and enforcement; to establish a functionally independent railway incident investigation unit within the commission to investigate railway accidents; to require railway undertakings to put in place a formal safety management system and describe the components of that system in a document called a "safety case"; to establish an independent statutory public body, the railway safety advisory council, comprising representatives of organisations with an interest in railway safety; and to provide for the testing of safety-critical railway workers for intoxicants.

The Bill provides a modern, but flexible, means of independently overseeing the safety of our railways. It covers not only the Iarnród Éireann network but also the Luas system, the planned metro network, about which I am particularly delighted, heritage railways and other railways that interface with a public road or another railway.

Many of the provisions of this Bill are implementing requirements of the EU railway safety directive adopted in April 2004. For example, the directive requires that each member state establishes a railway safety regulator and appoints an independent railway accident investigator. Senators are probably aware that the Railway Safety Commission has been established on an interim basis pending the enactment of this Bill and I understand the post of chief accident investigator will be advertised in the coming weeks. This means we will be in a position to implement the aforementioned provisions quickly.

The EU railway safety directive also requires that railway operators and infrastructure managers be certified by the safety authority on the basis of formal safety management systems. While these and most of the requirements of the EU railway safety directive are being implemented through this Bill, certain other more technical requirements of the directive will be transposed through regulations to be made under this Bill.

Lessons learned from other countries have been taken into consideration in the provisions of the Bill. The Bill does not replicate the safety regime of any one country, rather, it takes account of different regimes and experiences in other countries and it defines a framework appropriate for the scale of the Irish railway network and the nature of its operations.

In addition to the modernisation of the law relating to railway safety, the Government has already invested significant money in modernising the railway infrastructure and in the purchase of new rolling stock. In 1999, a high-level task force recommended the implementation of a 15-year railway safety programme comprising three five-year tranches. It first addressed the highest risks on the network and focuses on reducing overall risk, thus improving safety.

The Leader of this House, Senator O'Rourke, brought the proposals for the first safety programme to Cabinet and it was she who secured over €600 million for the funding of the safety programme covering the period 1999 to 2003. Since the commencement of the programme in 1999, in excess of €800 million has been invested in the infrastructure and safety management systems of Iarnród Éireann. By the end of 2013, over €1.4 billion will have been expended on railway safety, resulting in a much safer network for both passengers and staff. This major investment has resulted in a significant reduction in risk from the physical infrastructure. For example, 418 miles of track have been renewed, 260 miles of fencing have been erected and nearly 800 level crossings have been closed or upgraded.

The safety culture in Iarnród Éireann has also been enhanced through improved training, the development of company-wide standards and the development of management tools such as the risk-assessment model and the infrastructure asset management system. It is worth mentioning that while this investment is safety-related, resulting in reduced risk and an improvement in safety indicators, the programme contributes significantly to the overall business performance of Iarnród Éireann and contributes to significant benefits to customers through reduced journey times resulting from track renewal and upgrading. In addition, since 1997 the Government has, through Iarnród Éireann, undertaken a significant programme to renovate and replace ageing rolling stock and significantly expand the fleet. This has involved the doubling of the DART rail carriage fleet and the purchase of 163 diesel railcars, 120 intercity railcars and 67 intercity carriages. By the end of 2007, when all the currently ordered rolling stock will have entered service, we will have one of the youngest fleets in Europe, if not the world. This represents a tremendous advancement in a relatively short period.

Much work has been done to improve accessibility and all rolling stock will be fully accessible. Considerable work has been done at nearly every railway station in this regard. Some of the new carriages will not only have fully accessible features to facilitate mounting and disembarking but will also have fully accessible toilet facilities in each carriage. This is the class of railcar we are acquiring.

Part 1 of the Bill includes standard provisions in regard to such matters as the Short Title, interpretation, orders and regulations. Part 2 deals with the establishment of the Railway Safety Commission. Part 3 places general duties of care on railway undertakings, persons working on railways and other persons. Part 4 deals with safety management systems, safety cases and related issues. Part 5 deals with the investigation of railway incidents. Part 6 deals with the making of regulations on specified matters and the review of legislation by the commission. Part 7 deals with the enforcement powers of inspectors of the commission and the investigation unit. Part 8 deals with the establishment of the railway safety advisory council and sets out its membership and functions.

Parts 9 and 10 of the Bill set out a detailed regime for the testing of safety-critical railway workers for drugs and alcohol. This is a significant innovation in the area of railway safety. Railway unions must be consulted in the drafting of the binding codes of conduct in this regard. I have included powers to test safety-critical workers at random, and in circumstances that are reasonable, while they are at work. The Attorney General has confirmed to me that this provision will withstand constitutional scrutiny on the basis that the balance struck by the Legislature between the private rights of individuals and those of the public is proportionate. In giving this advice, he was conscious of the limited application of the random testing provisions to safety-critical railway workers and the potentially catastrophic consequences for large numbers of people of mistakes in the operation, maintenance or repair of the railway system. I cannot stress this point strongly enough.

Part 11 of the Bill deals with works on a public road in the vicinity of a railway. Part 12 provides for serious offences such as attempting to derail a train by obstructing a railway line, exposing others to danger on a railway and deliberate damage to a railway. Part 13 deals with various procedural matters such as prosecution and the service of notices. Part 14 deals with amendments to legislation relating exclusively to CIE. Part 15 deals with miscellaneous matters and Part 16 updates the Transport (Railway Infrastructure) Act 2001. Schedule 1 details the various enactments repealed and Schedule 2 details the existing statutory functions relating to railway safety regulations which are to be transferred to the new railway safety commission.

The new regulatory framework and the major investment the Government continues to make in our railways will lay the bedrock for safe rail travel in the future and will assure the travelling public that safety is and will continue to be of paramount importance to this Government. I ask Senators to facilitate the early passage of the Bill into law and I commend it to the House.