British rail safety expert Mr Peter Rayner has written to the Labour Court and the Labour Relations Commission to express his concerns about aspects of their inquiry into the ILDA dispute last summer.
In his letter Mr Rayner says: "One must compliment the authors of the report, which reads well. It is very unfortunate they were unable to write with equal authority about the safety issues raised by ILDA."
Mr Rayner was commissioned by the ILDA to carry out a safety audit of the New Deal for Locomotive Drivers which the association opposed with a bitter 10week strike last year. He says the association articulated the views of most mainline drivers about safety. The findings of the joint Labour Court/Labour Relations Commission also vindicated ILDA's stance on a number of safety issues, he said.
These included restrictions on the use of "contingency" (part-time) drivers, and restrictions on maximum hours drivers can work without breaks.
On the safety report by Sedgewick Wharf, Mr Rayner says: "All my own misgivings and fears about the safety aspects of the New Deal [for Locomotive Drivers] are to be found within their report, but not all of them appear in their conclusion."
A spokesman for Iarnrod Eireann said the company's safety report by Halcrow, as well as the Sedgewick Wharf report, had shown the new deal enhanced safety levels for drivers.