Vol. 482 No. 6
143 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if a section of her Department carries out independent monitoring of the safety of the national railway track system or if it is totally reliant on Irish Rail in this regard. [18599/97]
The safety of rail operations is a matter for the board and management of CIE and Iarnród Éireann.
My Department employs a railway inspecting officer who is appointed under the Regulation of Railways Acts. The railway inspecting officer's duties include inspection and approval of new and reconstructed physical works on railways, the provision of technical advice to the Department on railway safety matters and liaision with Iarnród Éireann on the safety of operations, including the lessons to be learned from accident investigations.
The railway inspecting officer also chairs two interdepartmental committees i.e. the level crossings working group and the committee on the carriage of dangerous goods by rail. The former deals with general rail safety with particular emphasis on safety at level crossings and railway bridges. The dangerous goods committee's primary function is to develop and keep updated the scheme for the co-ordination of emergency services and other organisations in the event of an accident involving dangerous substances in transit by rail.
