Irish Rail does not have confidence that contractor Indra can deliver a long-delayed IT system to control movement of trains on which €30 millon has already been spent, an Oireachtas committee has been told.
Irish Rail chief executive Mary Considine told the Oireachtas committee on transport on Wednesday that it was now “reviewing its options” in relation to the project. She said management would be bringing a recommendation to the Irish Rail board later this month.
The committee was told that six deadlines for the delivery of the IT system – known as the traffic management system (TMS) – had been missed.
In May, the Irish Rail board wrote down the value of its investment in a planned new national train control centre by €50 million due to concerns over the development of the TMS, a key element of the overall project.
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This decision came after management reported that the latest version of software delivered by Indra to Irish Rail in April had encountered significant problems in testing.
Considine said the software had failed in the tests.
She said it was clear that “a further major and unplanned software release is required, and that further big delays are inevitable. There is currently no programme for any of the TMS commissioning phases. Six years on, and two years after the original commissioning date, Indra still do not have a developed product fit for deployment on our rail network and they remain in a product development cycle.”
However, committee chairman Michael Murphy (FG) maintained there were significant red flags about the project going back several years before the Irish Rail board decided on the €50 impairment.
He asked why, in light of concerns within Irish Rail, millions of euro continued to be spent on the project.
Asked by Murphy whether she had confidence in Indra to deliver on the TMS project, Considine replied: “Based on the discussions with my team and the grave concerns expressed by the board, we would not have confidence at this stage.”
Irish Rail director of capital investments Paul Hendrick said he did not have the evidence available to declare confidence in Indra based on what he had seen on the TMS contract.
Murphy said committee members found it particularly troubling that Irish Rail documents showed risks to the TMS were identified as early as 2022 and yet expenditure on the project continued to increase significantly.
“In 2022, Irish Rail already knew that the product that they had thought they had bought was not in fact the actual product.”
He said part of the Irish Rail briefing document to the committee was “potentially explosive”. He said the document maintained that the version of the software shown during the procurement process was not the version ultimately proposed and the contractor’s generic product still required big development, although that process was already delayed.
Hendrick told Grace Boland (FG) that Irish Rail had been flagging since 2023, that the budget of €150 million earmarked for the overall national train control centre project – which included the TMS – “was going to be breached by tens of millions. He said the company suggested a potential upper ceiling of €205 million.”
Considine said Irish Rail was still in contract with Indra in relation to the TMS project but that it was looking at its options.
[ Irish Rail wanted to end contract last year for delayed IT project companyOpens in new window ]
“We ... are working through those and will be bringing those options to the board this month. We will be making a clear recommendation to our board. And subject to getting the consent of the board, we will be engaging with the National Transport Authority as the approving authority.”
Louis O’Hara (SF) asked why Indra continued to be paid for the project even after Irish Rail had asked the National Transport Authority to consider a plan B.
She said Indra had given assurances that it was committing significant resources “and would deliver a product to us in April that would be capable of meeting technical readiness by July this year and thereafter go into a safety assurance process for delivery by January of next year”.
“They failed to deliver that. The testing has failed and we are now moving to look at all of our options under the contract,” said Considine.
