The Minister of State for Public Enterprise, Mr Joe Jacob, apologised for "having inadvertently misled the House" last week. He had replied to a challenge from two Fine Gael TDs, Mr Jim Higgins (Mayo) and Mr Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon) who had questioned the accuracy of his report on the Tuam level-crossing incident on information he had been given by Iarnrod Eireann.
In his speech to the Dail, he had referred to a previous incident on December 22nd involving a passenger train, which collided with a gate at the level crossing. Iarnrod Eireann said the driver had failed to stop short of the gate. He was told the driver was retrained and disciplinary action had been taken against him.
He had since been advised as follows: Immediately following the incident on December 22nd, the company's district manager in Galway was contacted. He requested a traction executive in Athlone to go to the scene. When he did he ordered the driver to continue his journey to Ballina and accompanied him. He also accompanied him back to Athlone on an "empty train".
"Last week I said the Minister was advised by Iarnrod Eireann the driver was retrained." He now understood the "retraining" took place while he was being accompanied by the traction executive to Ballina and back to Athlone, a distance of 170 miles. During this journey, Iarnrod Eireann said, the district traction executive observed the driver's train-handling ability.
He had also referred last week to the fact that the inquiry into the December incident had been suspended pending the completion of an inquiry into the most recent incident. "The company has since advised that this was not the case and that it was never intended to suspend the inquiry." Rather, the company "intended to convey the message" that the inquiry had been overtaken by the incident at the same location on February 16th.
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