Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and wish him well with this Bill. Fine Gael will not delay the passage of the Bill through the House. While I also welcome the opportunity to speak on this important legislation I regret the fact that it has taken so long to reach the House. When the Bill was first introduced in the Dáil in 2001, many speakers commented on its importance. In the intervening period, four years have passed and we are extremely fortunate that there has been no significant rail crash or catastrophic accident during this period. The Bill is long overdue and the emphasis should be on ensuring its swift delivery.

The main aspects of the Bill, which provides for the monitoring and inspection of railway infrastructure and the investigation into and publication of reports on railway accidents, are long overdue. The publication of reports on railway accidents is needed urgently, particularly in light of the arrival of the Luas system and other ambitious rail plans, which the Minister of State outlined this morning. The question of whether any of us will still be in the House to see any of these projects realised is a debate for another day. The need for increased rail safety and the structure to provide it are clear prerequisites.

The Bill, which will hopefully be swiftly implemented, provides for wide-ranging enforcement powers. It puts a new regulatory framework for rail safety in place and will apply to all railways to which there is public access, including those rail lines operated by CIE, Luas and the proposed metro system. The Bill's remit also covers aspects of industrial railways that interface with public road and rail networks. The Bill places the primary duty of care on railway undertakings to ensure the safety of people for whom they are responsible, which is a very prudent, necessary and welcome measure.

In the wake of a rail accident at Knockcroghery, County Roscommon, the Minister for Public Enterprise acknowledged in 2001 that the standard of rail safety was completely unacceptable and that the rail safety inspectorate was inhibited from effectively doing its work because of Irish Rail's failure to provide full and timely information. This is not good enough and the travelling public needs and deserves better.

I hope this legislation can effect a sea change in how our rail operators view and deal with safety issues. In the past, Irish Rail has rarely admitted its own inadequacies in terms of the provision of rail safety. Its strategy has often been to avoid carrying out essential safety measures beforehand, blame staff for incidents when they occur and deflect responsibility for rail safety inadequacies from the company. The scapegoating of staff and the deflecting of responsibility must end because they undermine rail safety.

We need to move beyond merely blaming drivers. I am happy to see that the protection of whistleblowers is an integral part of the Bill. Such protection will be important in ensuring a change in how rail safety is dealt with. We will never have any systematic change in corporate culture unless the anonymity and job security of whistleblowers are guaranteed. Workers must not be afraid to report infringements of rail safety carried out by their employers.

In recent years, there have, thankfully, been far less heavy rail incidents. However, we cannot become complacent. What has come to the fore is the number of incidents which have occurred since the arrival of the two Luas lines. Greater security must be introduced to ensure these accidents do not occur and measures needed to prevent such accidents from reoccurring must be enacted. This will involve extensive co-operation between rail operators, the new railway safety commission and local authorities. It is crucial that the commission takes a proactive stance from its inception.

The high level of overcrowding on rail commuter services must be immediately investigated. It has been communicated to me that many commuter services to Dublin, such as the Drogheda and Maynooth commuter services, are frequently subject to extensive overcrowding, which is a disaster waiting to happen. Allowing people to be herded into overcrowded trains cannot be justified. Increasing the number of people using public transport is laudable because we need to persuade people not to travel by car but we cannot place the public in harm's way. We must set standards in this respect. The capacity to facilitate the numbers seeking to board our commuter trains is lacking although the genuine desire not to leave anyone behind on the platform is understandable. However, safety cannot be compromised. Rail tragedies in the UK have often brought home to us the need to ensure that safety is the paramount consideration.

Overcrowding is merely one of a range of rail safety breaches which cannot be tolerated. A colleague recently informed me about an incident on the Kildare line where the lighting failed and it became impossible to open the train's doors at each station. A number of my constituents have complained to me about four occasions in the last two months when the train to Westport broke down between Athlone and Dublin. I am sure everyone in the House has experienced or heard of rail horror stories.

I welcome the fact that the new commission will have teeth and hope it will aggressively pursue all rail safety infringements. It must ensure that rail operators do not focus solely on commercial considerations, as they have traditionally done. Public transport providers of any kind must place the travelling public to the fore of their considerations. The safety of the public and company employees must be to the fore and the commission must not tolerate any excuses from rail operators. The reporting of rail investigations must be swift or confidence in the commission will be undermined. In the past, the reporting of the outcomes of rail accident investigations has been prolonged.

One of the most important sections in the Bill, at least from an employee's perspective, is that concerned with drug testing. This provision is welcome and justified. I welcome the fact that the people who will assess samples taken from employees will be independent of Irish Rail. This measure is crucial, given the potential for bullying or intimidation of employees.

The aspect of the Bill that deals with criminal prosecutions is also vital and I hope the commission will not be tame in this regard. The commission's powers of detention and enforcement must be taken seriously by the rail industry from its inception. I am hopeful that the commission will not be tame in this respect either because the stakes are too high given that any oversights could lead to greater threats to public safety.

I welcome the Minister of State's announcement that 418 miles of rail track have been renewed, 260 miles of fencing have been erected and approximately 800 level crossings have been closed or upgraded. However, there are still unmanned level crossings in some areas, a number of which are in my county. There is a level crossing at Kilnageer outside Castlebar, County Mayo, one at Knockaphunta in Castlebar and one at Straide, County Mayo, on the Ballina line. There are three unmanned level crossings at Claremorris. There have been accidents at all these crossings, some of which were very serious. Tragedies have occurred at Knockaphunta. New signalling systems are being put in place which will speed up the trains. It should be possible to include the opening and closing of barriers at the unmanned level crossings in this work.

The signalling upgrade on the Sligo line will be completed this year but on the Westport and Ballina lines it will continue until 2008. There is plenty of time to link the unmanned level crossings into the system and set up automatic barriers where accidents are waiting to happen. There has been a significant increase in the population in these areas which gives rise to more traffic using the level crossings. I urge the Minister of State to consider those areas.