Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

The next century. If Deputy Kenny or, perish the thought, Deputy Rabbitte were Taoiseach I would say the exact same thing. For an aviation bootboy, as I described him yesterday, to treat the legitimately elected Taoiseach in this way is obnoxious. Mr. O'Leary earns his money from the people of this land and I do not know why his treatment of a democratically elected Taoiseach does not spark a revolt. I commend Senator Mansergh on the strong manner in which he has spoken, as I do myself. Of course Mr. O'Leary facilitated travel for millions of people but does that entitle him to be an obnoxious, hateful pig and a bootboy? I do not think so. There is such a thing as manners but he does not have any. What a silly person he is but we are here to talk about the Railway Safety Bill and I am here to praise it, as it is my Bill.

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House and the officials with whom I laboured long and dutifully. This Bill was published four years ago and we worked strongly on it. The Bill was part of the prongs of the safety arrangements put in place. I remember a railway engineer writing to me from Scotland when we were investigating railway safety. He wrote that if I drafted this legislation I would sleep easy in my bed as the railways of the country would be safe. That is exactly what I was able to do and I am glad I have said this.

The dreadful Knockcroghery accident, in which nobody was killed because they were cushioned by the walls, occurred on the same day as the inauguration of President McAleese. We could have been at funerals that day rather than the inauguration. I did not rest and came to the Cabinet on three separate occasions seeking the guts of €1,000 million. On the first day I was laughed out of it, but not so much on the second day. On the third day, they said "Yes" and we went ahead with the railway safety work. I wish to thank all those who took part in that work and devised the strategies. Three funding tranches were required to get it working, otherwise the railways would have been dead.

In 1984, the coalition Government said there would be no more investment in railways. I often wonder how the Minister of the day rested easy knowing there had been a severe rail accident in 1981 resulting in many deaths. In addition, numerous warnings had been issued by CIE that it could not keep the trains going. How could one be a Minister with responsibility for public transport and sleep easy knowing that safety measures were not being carried out? It was the most remarkable volte face I could ever have envisaged and I could not do it myself. I informed the Cabinet that I could not remain in office if this was not done. The action was taken then and it means that everything planned in the Transport 21 initiative can happen. It could not have happened, however, if the tracks had not been made safe. One may as well stay at home if the tracks and level crossings are unsafe. Some 800 or 900 safety improvements have been undertaken and thank goodness for that because they were such a bugbear.

A great fuss has been made because the ESB is getting private contractors to undertake work. CIE also engaged outside contractors because it did not have the personnel or know-how to do that safety work. That was allowed because people knew their jobs depended upon it, as did the continuation of the railways.

I will always be grateful and appreciative of the opportunity I had, not just figuratively but literally, to put my stamp on the railways of Ireland. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy Callely, for whom I have a high regard, but a Minister with responsibility for the railways should be a rural Deputy from outside Dublin. Trains are needed in rural areas. I consulted a book, which I am launching next week, and noted that most of the previous Ministers with responsibility for public transport were from outside the capital. They would need to have been because they knew the role railways play in Irish life.

I am glad that a provision for drug and alcohol testing is included in the Bill, which is very important. The matter may have been questioned constitutionally and in other regards, but I am glad the provision has been included because it is very necessary.

Railway journeys are recorded all over the world and people appreciate them as well as being interested in the mysterious nature of international rail travel. In Ireland, people kept on saying they wanted new trains but I suggested that we have to get the tracks right before new carriages are introduced. New railcars are currently being put into operation because the essential safety measures have been put in place.

I want to record my thanks to Senator Mansergh because when I was pushing this agenda in Cabinet and not getting very far, behind the scenes he did his usual diplomatic stuff and was able to ease my path to a certain extent. It was a fight worth having and one worth winning. The people of Ireland will benefit, not just now but for years to come. It was the first major upgrading of the railways.

I recall seeing the fish-plate following the train crash in Knockcroghery which is about 15 miles from Athlone. A CIE official pointed out that the fish-plate dated from 1872. I thought to myself, "This has never been looked at since 1872 and here we are putting trains on them and packing those trains with people". I got a big shock which affected me deeply. I remember thinking that there was only one way out of the situation no matter what it cost. The choice was quite stark because one could have opted to close the railways apart from the main lines from Dublin to Cork, Galway and Belfast. That would have left us with no rail network.

Interestingly, the year I came into Government in 1987, when there were major cutbacks because of everything that had occurred in the previous four years, a proposal was put to us by the Department of Finance that we should stop the railway at Athlone and not go further west over the Shannon to Galway. I remember laughing at that suggestion.