In a highly unusual move, named Government officials have publicly rejected Fine Gael allegations that attempts were made to sanitise a consultants' report on rail safety.
Mr Pat Mangan, assistant secretary of the Department of Public Enterprise, and Mr Robin McKay, principal officer in charge of public transport in the Department, yesterday told journalists they were "very angry" at Fine Gael claims that they had been involved in any doctoring of the report written by International Risk Management Services (IRMS).
Expressing deep annoyance at the allegations, Mr Mangan said he had met Fine Gael representatives in November and had "given assurances".
Echoing his colleague, Mr McKay said it was his priority that they come to terms with rail safety. Both officials insisted they had not been asked by their Minister, Ms O'Rourke, to attempt to dilute the findings.
"That is untrue. I received no instructions from the Minister, good, bad or indifferent . . . no instructions that would have the impact of minimising the report of the consultants," Mr Mangan said.
Confirming that he and Mr McKay had travelled to Manchester on October 13th to discuss with IRMS the final chapter dealing with risk assessment, Mr Mangan said they were struck by the fact that the Howth-Balbriggan and Portarlington-Ballybrophy lines were judged by the consultants to be high-risk. These sections of line had been upgraded.
The two officials raised this point with the consultants and a general discussion followed on the assessment of risk. As a result, IRMS sought additional information from Iarnrod Eireann and input this into its risk-assessment model. "I don't think Irish Rail provided the wrong data. It was misinterpreted by IRMS engineers," he added.
This goes to the heart of Fine Gael claims that the term "intolerable risk", which originally appeared in relation to three sections of line in a working document, did not feature in the final draft as carrying this level of danger.
Continuing its charge that discrepancies existed between the working papers that formed the basis of the report and the finished product, Fine Gael yesterday said it "utterly refutes some of the statements issued by the Minister, her Department and the consultants IRMS over recent days".