Safety consultants are worried that the mini-CTC rail-signalling system is not in place and have called for an immediate safety survey of rail lines.
ERM Risk Inc carried out the last of three reports for the Department of Public Enterprise in April and found key safety issues being addressed by temporary measures.
Joins along some tracks were clipped to stop them moving and causing derailments and speed restrictions were imposed on these sections.
ERM managing director Mr Andrew Smith told the rail-signalling inquiry that these were only short-term solutions.
Speed restrictions were subject to human error and clipped points could come loose. "It's not a long-term solution by any stretch of the imagination," he said. Mr Smith said the rural lines along which mini-CTC was supposed to be operated were very old and in poor condition and he had recommended "very strongly" to the Government that an urgent safety audit take place.
The first survey was carried out in late 1998 by International Risk Management Services, later taken over by ERM.
Its findings that the railway was "held together by sticking plaster" and could cause several deaths a year spurred investment in the railway. But it also prompted Iarnr≤d ╔ireann to seek higher specifications in the design of the mini-CTC which the contractors have said contributed to delays and cost increases.
Mr Smith, the last witness to give evidence to the signalling inquiry about the background to the mini-CTC, said things had improved since then.
He said that at that time the railway was in a very poor state and had no safety systems.
A follow-up survey in March 2000 showed some improvements and the survey in April this year showed Iarnr≤d ╔ireann had the right ideas and a good strategy but Mr Smith still wanted to see the "meat on the bones".