Irish Rail Off the Rails as Drogheda Left Waiting Again
IT appears Iarnród Éireann has gone completely off the rails after blowing €50 million of taxpayers’ money on a failed IT project.
How incompetent can you be to give a contract to a company that turns out to be totally incapable of completing the project they were tasked to do?
The project was supposed to enhance safety on the rail network but you can safely say that in true Irish style those involved in this scandal won’t be held to account.
Closer to home Irish Rail won’t provide a badly needed second station for the northside of Ireland’s largest town while much smaller Navan is to get two stations when the line to the Co Meath capital is completed.
It was revealed this week that a new rail line is to be built from Dublin’s Connolly to Navan along with four stations, including one at Navan North. The project is funded by the Department of Transport through the National Transport Authority and is part of the NTA’s Greater Dublin Area Transport Strategy.
For the past two decades Drogheda has been crying out for a station on the northside to accommodate the rapidly growing population but the current and previous governments have ignored these calls.
In recent days Louth Labour TD Ged Nash accused the Government of leaving Drogheda commuters “standing at the station” while other towns of a similar size receive major rail infrastructure investment. He said what is taking place is “buck-passing” between Government departments and State agencies over the delivery of a proposed new train station for north Drogheda and he’s not wrong.
The National Transport Authority, the same NTA which is behind the Navan line, claims it can’t build a station for Drogheda as it falls outside the Greater Dublin Area. Since when was Navan included in the Greater Dublin Area?
Deputy Nash has now called on Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien to amend the Dublin Transport Authority Act to include Louth. I’d wager there’s as much chance of him doing that as Irish Rail has of getting their €50 million back.
But we shouldn’t be too hard on Irish Rail as it’s only following the great tradition of Irish government departments and state bodies wasting massive sums of taxpayers money.
In 2001 the then Fianna Fail Government flushed even more cash down the pan than Irish Rail when they bought 7,500 useless electronic-voting machines costing nearly €55 million when storage was included. All the machines were sold for just over €70,000 in 2012 or averaging roughly €9 each after it was shown they could be hacked.
And this time last year the Arts Council of Ireland faced severe criticism after the total collapse of a €6.7 million IT modernisation project that was ultimately scrapped after being deemed entirely “not fit for purpose”.
But the daddy of them all was the notorious PPARS (Personnel, Payroll and Related Systems) which was initiated by the health boards in 1995 and inherited by the HSE. The project’s initial budget of €9 million skyrocketed to €220 million by the time the rollout was abandoned in 2007.
A Summer Built for Umbrellas, Not Barbecues
WHO would be a garden furniture salesperson in a country where it rains up to 225 days a year, depending on your location?
I’ve received emails this week from retailers about special offers on the above as well as high end barbecues costing up to €300.
I’ve personally given up on all that and would put the €300 towards a holiday in the Canaries rather than buy a barbecue that might not fry a sausage all year.
As we approach the last week of May it doesn’t look as if there’s any sign of a heatwave so the parasol and deck chairs will probably rot away in the garage for another year.
Ain’t it strange that with all the talk of climate change ours stays the same with washout summers while much of Europe roasts.
Maybe it’s time the harp was replaced by the umbrella as our national emblem or, better still, the Child of Prague.
A Skywalk Over the Boyne Might Be a Bridge Too Far
IT wasn’t quite a case of castles in the air but it came close at a Drogheda Borough District meeting this week when a new “Skywalk” bridge adjoining the Boyne Viaduct was proposed.
Councillors backed a motion asking Louth County Council to support the construction of a pedestrian and cycle bridge adjoining the historic viaduct.
It certainly would be novel but I suspect it might be a bridge too far as accessing and ascending from such a structure might be challenging to say the least.
I also suspect that Irish Rail might not be too keen on the idea, but then again when they can spend €50 million on a non-existent IT system, anything is possible.
The Forgotten Tune Known as The Drogheda Jig
WHO knew there was a piece of traditional Irish music known as The Drogheda Jig? I certainly didn’t until I heard it played on the radio this week by legendary fiddler Martin Hayes.
Its origins are unclear but it apparently dates back to at least the mid-19th century and is also called the Drogheda Weavers Jig and was documented by the Church of Ireland cleric and uilleann piper James Goodman.
It is preserved in the music manuscripts of Canon Goodman, which are held by the Irish Traditional Music Archive.
I’ve probably heard it played in Carberry’s many times down the years, but didn’t know its name.
