I propose to take Questions Nos. 414 and 418 together.
Following a series of worrying incidents on the Iarnród Éireann railway, culminating in the Knockcroghery derailment in 1997, the Minister commissioned an independent review of all aspects of railway safety in 1998. The study was carried out by a team of independent consultants led by International Risk Management Services, IRMS, and was published in November 1998.
In 1999, IRMS was commissioned to carry out an implementation review of progress being made by Iarnród Éireann against the recommendations made in the 1998 report. The report of the review was published in March 2000. A second implementation review was commissioned in November 2000 and was carried out by IRMS. Its report was published in August 2001. The cost of the review was €304,319. The report of the second implementation review concluded that Iarnród Éireann had made substantial progress in improving the safety of its railway infrastructure since the first study in 1998 and that the speed of improvement had increased since the first implementation review. However, the consultants did raise concerns about the delay, at that time, in the provision of the mini-CTC signalling system and noted that the delay was continuing to cause major problems in maintaining worn out equipment on the affected routes.
The Minister was concerned that the delay could lead to further deterioration of these routes and commissioned the consultants to prepare a short supplementary report on this issue. The supplementary report cost €3,071 and was also published in August 2001. In the supplementary report, IRMS recommended that Iarnród Éireann prepare a comprehensive plan to ensure that adequate safety levels are maintained on the mini-CTC lines. The consultants also recommended the carrying out of a sample audit exercise to ensure that the plan was being implemented in a satisfactory fashion. IRMS was subsequently commissioned to carry out the sample audit. The audit was finalised in April 2002 at a cost of €25,316. The audit was conducted by means of a review of Iarnród Éireann's management systems for the mini-CTC lines and by carrying out site visits to a representative sample of the affected railway lines to assess the safety of the physical infrastructure.