Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

The executive chairman of CIE, Dr. John Lynch, has regularly made himself available to the Joint Committee on Transport on a variety of issues relating to the CIE group. Since September 2009 he has appeared before the committee on four occasions. It is accepted practice that the chairman and chief executives of State companies appear as requested before Oireachtas committees to represent the State body concerned. For example, in enacting the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008, which provided for the setting up of the Dublin Transport Authority, now the National Transport Authority, the Oireachtas provided under section 41 that the chairperson and chief executive would appear before Oireachtas committees as required. No provision was made for entire boards or individual non-executive directors to appear before Oireachtas committees. It would be entirely inappropriate, therefore, for the Minister for Transport to dismiss the non-executive directors of CIE.

The Minister received a copy of the Baker Tilly Ryan Glennon report into procurement practices in Iarnród Éireann in October 2009 and arranged for a copy, with some deletions for legal reasons, to be placed in the Oireachtas Library. The chairman and chief executive of Iarnród Éireann have been before the committee on two occasions regarding the issue of procurement practices at the company. The chairman of the board audit committee appeared at the last such meeting in December 2009, together with the chairman and senior management of Iarnród Éireann. The Minister sought and received from the board of CIE a full report, dated 15 January 2010, on the background to the Baker Tilly Ryan Glennon report and the state of implementation of its recommendations. A copy of this report was provided to the Committee of Public Accounts and to the Joint Committee on Transport. The Minister is satisfied that the CIE board has taken the necessary steps to ensure adherence to the procurement requirements detailed in the code of practice.

There are a range of measures in place to ensure CIE accounts for the discharge of its functions, including annual reports and accounts which are placed before the Oireachtas, annual reports by the chairman certifying compliance with code of practice requirements, regular appearances before Oireachtas committees, and annual audit of accounts by independent auditors.

Dr. John Lynch was re-appointed by the Government as chairman of CIE, as executive chairman of the company and as chairman of Iarnród Éireann, Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann, for a maximum period of one year until 28 March 2011. The reappointment of Dr. Lynch is to ensure continuity at this critical juncture in the implementation of the cost recovery measures under way and planned across the CIE group. The successful implementation of these measures is critical for the financial viability of the group.

During his ten-year period in office, the chairman has overseen a transformation in the quality and reliability of bus and rail services. Major projects have been delivered on time and within budget, including a major revitalisation of the railway service with Exchequer support and the renewal of Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann fleets. The Minister is satisfied that as regards its obligations to Oireachtas committees, the CIE board has complied with all reasonable requests relating to the issue of procurement within the CIE group.