Iarnród Éireann—Irish Rail

So I've posted online to let people know, just letting you know the lift is out of order.

So you're more relying on your people in your community to let you know more than Irish Rail, to be honest.

And that's a big problem, Jason, isn't it?

Yeah, look, communication from all of the public transport operators is poor at best.

And other people, like buses then, are used by people, regular DART users, obviously, you know, will have to get a bus or something else.

But again, For us, you know, they're flagged that it's not available for them.

And I think, you know, Irish Rail have said that as well.

So competitors themselves haven't come on to us to say, listen, it has caused them a huge issue.

What do you do? I'm an electrician

on Irish Rail.

Harry, the electrician on Irish Rail.

Good job.

And how do you do all these?

A travel warning is in place if you intend heading west by train tomorrow evening.

The Westmeath Independent says engineering works between Athlone and Ballinasloe will disrupt several Irish rail services on Saturday.

So these being the Houston to Galway services departing at 5.31, 6.30, 7.35 and 8.30.

So tomorrow evening, those trains will operate only as far as Athlone, and then you'll be transferred onto a bus to Ballinasloe, re-board a train and go on to Galway.

Well, it kind of confirmed what I thought, that the rumours that have been circulating was that there was government intervention.

You know, the government did approach Irish Rail to overturn their decision.

It's a bit shocking.

I don't think government should have any role in, you know, in the dictation of where, you know, the progress and I suppose the plans, the strategic plans of Irish Rail.

And so I think I put in a Freedom of Information now into Irish Rail to find out, I suppose, you know, who would the government be, how, what part, what part the government or who are people involved in trying to overturn this decision.

And effectively they did overturn this decision.

And You know, I just think there's no role.

There's no role for government intervention in interfering with plans that had been strategically set out by Irish Rail.

control overtime for obvious reasons because you pay much more for overtime and have a stronger basic core workforce.

Okay, Eamon McCauley I'll let you pick up the HSE piece but I also want you to help frame up the other issue we had which was around Irish Rail rejecting reports that it owes a contracting firm £30 million, having already written almost £50 million off when it scrapped a rail traffic management system.

So we're dealing with two big headlines today when it comes to write-offs, write-downs.

Yeah, and this is the kind of story that's plagued this government about misspend or money being sunk into projects that won't work or hearing that actually the budget for this is going to have to be revised because it's going to cost, you know, billions more than we thought it would.

does hit clerical staff quite hard and then they rely on agency staff and then you've got disjointed thinking.

It would be really interesting to hear more from the HSE on why this is happening and is it the case that they don't have the resources to pursue the claims aggressively enough, I think.

With Irish Rail.

Yeah, this is kind of incredible.

The dispute over changes to the criminal legal aid system has intensified, with criticism directed at, uh, Minister of Justice, uh, Jim O'Callaghan, and solicitors who have withdrawn their services.

Also, on The Times today, we're reading that the Spanish IT company Indra is, uh, seeking payments of potentially more than thirty million euro from Irish Rail as part of a final accounts for an information technology system to manage trains across the network.

But the system has been scrapped, and Irish Rail is arguing that there's no money due to Indra.

To the Irish Independent, and the main story on the front of the Indo today, again, it's about the striking solicitors, uh, because they're facing criticism from some members of the judiciary over their refusal to represent clients in custody, with one judge warning practitioners could be referred to the legal services regulator for potential misconduct.

So that's certainly heating up.