Irish Rail has said it will seek to recover damages from a Spanish IT company over what it says was the failure to deliver key software for a new system to manage trains across its network.
Irish Rail chief executive Mary Considine also confirmed to the Oireachtas Committee on Transport on Wednesday that the Spanish IT firm Indra had issued its own claim in relation to the scrapped project, known as the traffic management system (TMS).
However, she said: “We do not believe we owe anything to Indra.”
The Irish Times reported on Wednesday that Indra had sought payments of potentially about €30 million as part of a final settlement of accounts.
The State-owned rail company had already written down by €50 million its investment in a new national train control centre at Heuston Station, largely due to problems with the planned TMS system.
Considine told the committee that Irish Rail had terminated its contract with Indra for the development of the TMS on July 17th.
Questioned by committee chairman Fine Gael TD Michael Murphy, Considine said Irish Rail had recently issued its final account to Indra. She said it was trying “to recover as much as we can on behalf of the exchequer”.
“At the end of the day, Indra did not deliver a product that was fit for purpose,” she said.
Separately, Considine told the committee that Irish Rail had seen record passenger levels, with a 20 per cent growth experienced in just two years.
However, she said the rail company did not have sufficient capacity or fleet to meet the demand for its services. She said there was a pipeline of new developments and she asked passengers “to bear with us”.
“The coming 12 months will see the beginning of benefits to our customers from a range of projects. Our new Dart fleet will begin entering service from quarter two in 2027. The first trains will be battery-electric trains, operating on the Drogheda commuter line, with charging facilities having been installed at Drogheda Station.” She said this would allow existing trains on the northern line to be “cascaded” to other parts of the network.
She said other projects that were nearing completion included the new Galway Ceannt Station, which will be completed by the end of this year; a second platform and associated section of second track at Oranmore, which will be completed next year; and the new Foynes freight line that will be commissioned this coming weekend, allowing for services to begin in 2027.
She said the new Waterford Plunkett Station would also open next year.
Several members of the committee expressed concern about overcrowding on trains and questioned whether this represented a safety risk.
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Irish Rail head of corporate communications Barry Kenny said the company appreciated that this could be uncomfortable but maintained that trains were designed to accommodate passengers who were standing.
The rail company separately told the hearing that it was envisaged that the second phase of the western rail corridor from Athenry to Claremorris would come into operation in 2031, while it was planned that the Dart West expansion would open in 2032 and the Dart South West scheme in 2034.