Committee queries rail signalling overrun

An Oireachtas committee investigating the huge cost overrun on Iarnrod Eireann's new signalling system yesterday considered seeking the appointment of a High Court inspector.

As well as requesting the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, to seek such an appointment, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport also discussed using powers of compellability as part of its investigation.

However, at the end of a private session, the committee decided to continue for the time being without such powers. The willingness of executives with Modern Networks Ltd (MNL) to attend voluntarily is understood to have been a factor in the decision.

MNL was contracted in 1997 to lay fibre optic lines for a new "mini CTC" signalling system for Iarnrod Eireann. The system was originally priced at £14 million but may now cost up to £40 million. Iarnrod Eireann is in dispute with MNL and its partner contractor, Alstom, and the project is currently stalled.

The committee plans to hold a public hearing next week at which it will question senior figures from CIE and Iarnrod Eireann.

Yesterday, it was given documents which committee members wish to study prior to the hearing. The documents include some references to the laying of fibre optic cables for Esat Telecom along the rail network, also by MNL.

The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, is likely to be called by the committee. A PricewaterhouseCoopers report commissioned by CIE is critical of the contract which covers the mini CTC project. It also refers to the fact that four CIE personnel have moved to MNL.

There are: Mr Brian Powell, former head of procurement; Mr Bernard Kernan, former signalling engineer and project manager/engineer; Ms Mary Hand, a solicitor formerly with Iarnrod Eireann; and Mr Pat Judge, a former signalling engineer.

Each of them was "horrified and upset" when they read their names in the newspapers, they informed the company.

They have contested elements of the consultants' report and have pointed out that Mr Kernan expressed reservations about Sisib (now Alstom). These points have also now been made in correspondence to the Oireachtas committee.

The four have also given details of when and how they joined MNL. Mr Powell was asked to join MNL in January 1999 and immediately removed himself from contact with the mini CTC project. He joined MNL in March 1999 and is managing director.

Mr Kernan was asked to join MNL in late April 1999 and took no part in any MNL project while serving his notice. He joined MNL on May 31st, 1999.

Ms Hand left CIE on a career break in June 1999. She was approached by Mr Powell in August 1999 and agreed to join MNL on a part-time basis and on the strict understanding that she could not give any legal advice on matters relating to MNL and Iarnrod Eireann.

Oireachtas committee member Mr Jim Higgins has called on Ms O'Rourke to explain what he said were discrepancies in her account of when exactly she knew of the multi-million pound overrun. A spokesman for the Minister said the first time Ms O'Rourke had an idea of the "serious concerns" expressed in the PricewaterhouseCoopers report was on September 21st of this year when her Department received the report.