The widow of a former chief executive of CIÉ is taking a High Court action against the Oireachtas committee which investigated a €45 million overrun on a rail signalling system.
Ms Noreen McDonnell is believed to be seeking some €400,000 in legal fees in a case naming six former members of the Oireachtas Committee of Public Enterprise and Transport. Her husband, Mr Michael McDonnell, died in April 2001, weeks after his retirement from the transport group.
The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, and the Attorney General, Mr Rory Brady, are also enjoined in the case, which is listed for mention on Tuesday.
Ms McDonnell was granted a right of representation at the inquiry into the mini-CTC signalling system in 2001, which began after her husband's death. She unsuccessfully attempted in the Supreme Court to block the investigation by the committee, stating that she wanted to protect her husband's good name.
Two members of the committee are no longer members of the Oireachtas. They are the former Fianna Fáil TD Mr Sean Doherty, who retired at the election, and former Fine Gael TD Mr Austin Currie, who lost his seat. Another member, Sen Jim Higgins of Fine Gael, also lost his Dáil seat. The other members were the Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, who was not then head of the party, and Fianna Fáil TDs Mr Noel O'Flynn and Mr Martin Brady.
They investigated how the cost of the signalling system rose to €63.5 million from €17.8 million, and inquired into links between the overrun and the simultaneous construction on the railway of a separate system for Esat Telecom.
However, the hearings, which had sat for 235 hours over 26 days, were abandoned last year when a High Court judgment restricted the scope of all Oireachtas inquiries.
