The former chairman of CIE, Mr Brian Joyce, has described the publication yesterday of an audit report on the rail safety programme at CIE as a "smokescreen" designed to divert attention from questions raised in his resignation letter about the company's autonomy.
Meanwhile, CIE was unable last night to confirm a statement by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, on RTE television that the Government had re-appointed its group chief executive, Mr Michael McDonnell, and its chief financial officer, Mr Jim Cullen, to the group's board.
A CIE spokesman said neither Mr McDonnell nor Mr Cullen had been informed of their reappointment. But a spokesman for Ms O'Rourke last night insisted that the Government had re-appointed both on February 1st.
Fine Gael's public enterprise spokesman, Mr Ivan Yates, said Ms O'Rourke should confirm the situation. "The Minister must now explain if it is correct that she has not implemented a Government decision."
Mr Joyce yesterday strongly rejected any suggestion that his resignation was linked to the safety audit, which found that "very few" unreasonable risks outlined in a 1998 report on the rail network had been fully resolved.
This was despite Government expenditure of £80 million on the rail safety programme last year.
Mr Joyce said he was not informed about the contents of the audit, which was carried out by a London consulting firm, International Risk Management Services (IRMS), before his departure.
"If it [the audit] was so monumental that there was something in it that would trigger my resignation I would need to know the contents, but I was not informed and had not seen the report," he said.
While IRMS said Iarnrod Eireann had done much to improve safety on its network, the consultants concluded that poor industrial relations and inadequate management structures had held back implementation of the safety programme.
"IRMS consider that there is a real danger of Iarnrod Eireann trying to do too much too quickly, and not consolidating upon safety improvements in a methodical and robust manner," the audit said.
Mr Joyce said that in a letter the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, had thanked him for his contribution to CIE, but failed to address his questions about autonomy. "I think the Minister should address the issues that were contained in the [resignation] letter rather than putting up this smokescreen," he said.
She denied last night that this constituted interference, saying she had merely been keeping herself informed.
Questioned in the Dail yesterday, Ms O'Rourke refused to withdraw a suggestion she made on RTE Radio yesterday morning that Mr Joyce had resigned became he did not want to "face the music" at a meeting planned for yesterday morning on rail safety.
It also emerged yesterday that several CIE board members and senior executives agree with the reasons given by Mr Joyce for his departure. Reliable sources said senior figures in the company believe they are not given the autonomy required to run it effectively and to develop the State's public transport system.
Ms O'Rourke said the secretary general of her Department had arranged last Monday with Mr Joyce that he would meet her at 8 a.m. yesterday to discuss the report. Yet at 7.30 p.m. a courier had delivered Mr Joyce's resignation letter.
A spokesman for the Minister said yesterday there were no markings on the letter to suggest that it was in any way urgent, or from CIE, and therefore it was not opened until yesterday morning.