Dempsey demands CIÉ fraud report

TRANSPORT Minister Noel Dempsey has demanded a full report from CIÉ over an internal company investigation which uncovered losses of €2.5 million due to alleged fraud and collusion.

Mr Dempsey confirmed yesterday he was unaware of the report by consultants – Baker, Tilly, Ryan, Glennon – before details of it were published in the Sunday Independent this week. Clearly annoyed at the failure of CIÉ to inform him about the report’s existence, Mr Dempsey said he had now sought a full explanation from the state transport company. The minister said he should have been informed about the report, which claimed losses of millions of euro of taxpayers money were incurred due to fraud and poor control procedures at CIÉ. Although it appeared CIÉ had detected the problems and subsequently acted to redress the situation, Mr Dempsey said no waste of taxpayers’ money could ever be condoned.

CIÉ spokesman Barry Kenny admitted yesterday the report had uncovered evidence of malpractice within Iarnród Éireann, which had resulted in three employees being fired.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Kenny insisted that losses of just €670,000 were suffered as a result of the unauthorised sale of railway sleepers from Iarnród Éireann’s North Wall depot in Dublin. However, he was forced to admit that the company had also suffered additional losses of €1.8m as a result of poor procedures and controls in its procurement policy.

CIÉ also acknowledged that a payment of €257,000 to an unsuccessful applicant for a tender to remove top soil from a site at North Wall in Dublin was the subject of a Garda investigation and other legal proceedings.

Mr Kenny said the losses should be viewed in the context of overall spending of €800m by CIÉ over the four-year period covered by the consultants’ report.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O’Dowd called on the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport to arrange an emergency meeting to discuss the allegations that millions of euro were squandered by CIÉ.

Mr O’Dowd said CIÉ chairman John Lynch and Iarnród Éireann chief executive Dick Fearn should appear before such a meeting to provide an explanation.

The Louth TD said the Freedom of Information Act needed to be expanded to allow quasi-commercial companies like CIÉ to be opened up to full and proper scrutiny.