RECENT TESTING OF the €50 million failed Irish Rail IT project has found that the software is “demonstrably not suitable” for roll-out on the rail network in Ireland, the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee will hear today.

Irish Rail and the National Transport Authority (NTA) are before the committee to answer questions as to how so much money could be spent on a project that will not be delivered. 

Under the initial proposals, the rail traffic management system was to be commissioned in 2024, with a target cost of €19.5 million.

The new IT system was intended to regulate train movements across the state and the NTA described it as the “critical component” in the broader National Train Control Centre project.

The new National Train Control Centre is being developed at Heuston Station to replace the existing Central Traffic Control Centre at Connolly Station which is reaching its end-of-life.

Committee members will hear today that the most recent testing of the system carried out in June “definitively confirmed that Indra (the contractors) will not achieve” key milestones committed to. 

The contractor is Spanish-based Indra Group, which was given the contract to develop the system in 2020. 

Irish Rail said it is now accepted by all parties that the contractor will not meet any of the commissioning phases.

“Six years on, and two years after the original commissioning date, Indra still do not have a developed product fit and safe for deployment on our rail network,” the opening statement said. 

‘Deep concern’

Irish Rail will tell the committee today that the serious problems encountered with traffic management system contract with Indra “are of deep concern to us”. 

“The project has reached a point where Iarnród Éireann has no certainty as to when the contractor will fulfil its contractual obligations, and no confidence in its ability to do so, despite the extensive and continuing efforts of Iarnród Éireann and the National Transport Authority,” Irish Rail says. 

A new centralised control centre for the national rail network is needed as the current technology is “life-expired”, according to Irish Rail, and it will not allow for further expansion of the rail network.

The NTA will tell the committee today that it is “rightly concerned about the write-down reported by Iarnród Éireann” and the delays affecting the project. 

“Let me be clear: the NTA takes these issues extremely seriously. Protecting public funds and ensuring value for money are central to our assessment of all requests and recommendations from sponsoring agencies,” Anne Shaw, head of the NTA states in her opening statement. 

She adds that an alternative delivery model remained an option, but no formal recommendation seeking such a change was made by the Irish Rail Board to the NTA until recently.

The committee was told that Irish Rail and the NTA engaged extensively with Indra to develop and implement revised delivery strategies to progress the project.

However, the NTA says the evidence indicates that the supplier is unlikely to deliver the required system to full specification within any reasonable time frame and an alternative delivery approach is needed.

“Given the ongoing costs, the matter was considered as a priority through the NTA’s governance processes, and the NTA Board has now accepted Iarnród Éireann’s decision regarding the role of Indra going forward. This was communicated to Iarnród Éireann on 13 July,” Shaw states.