Doctored report claims `bizarre'

Allegations that she had doctored a report on rail safety were "bizarre", "untenable" and "very, very strange," the Minister for Public Enterprise told a Dail committee yesterday.

Ms O'Rourke said she had "no hand, act or part" in the compilation of the report by a firm of British consultants, published in January. But she added that it was absurd to suggest the findings were too damning for her liking, when in reality, "I wanted the damnest report I could get".

Ms O'Rourke was answering questions from Fine Gael's Mr Ivan Yates during an all-day hearing of the Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport into suggestions that she or her officials had intervened to alter the findings of the International Risk Management Services (IRMS) study.

The Minister also said she was "taking advice" on an incident which occurred on RTE's Questions and Answers after the report's publication. Fine Gael's Mr Jim Mitchell had produced a document during that programme, suggesting it contained remarks on the safety of three lines - Athlone to Claremorris, Mallow to Tralee and Limerick Junction to Waterford - which had been deleted from the final report.

Mr Mitchell had made "very serious charges" which he had since not taken back, despite a subsequent admission by Mr Yates that his colleague had "made an error", the Minister said.

Friends had suggested to her that the "ambush" on the programme was an attempt to repeat "what was done to Brian Lenihan", and she would be seeking some form of "redress".

Representatives of IRMS, who attended the hearing, said they had come "under fairly severe pressure" at a post-publication meeting with Iarnrod Eireann. But asked if they had experienced political or administrative pressure during the compilation of the report, a spokesman said "absolutely not".

Mr Pat Mangan, assistant secretary at the Department of Public Enterprise, said it had been alleged that there were "inexplicable alterations" to the report's risk assessment for three lines, the effect of which was to compromise safety. He added: "At no time did the departmental representatives ask IRMS, directly or indirectly, to dilute their risk assessment. This would have been grossly irresponsible and unprofessional."

The secretary general of the department, Mr John Loughrey, reacted angrily to a suggestion by Mr Yates that a page missing from a copy of the IRMS working document had been ripped out. The truth was that it had simply been missed during copying.

Mr Yates said the page in question had included the most damning criticisms in the document.