The Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) have defended their Luas contract with Connex, who lost a UK contract, at a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport last night.
RPA chief executive Mr Frank Allen said the €20 million a year contract between the agency and Connex was "very strong" and would "protect the interests of the travelling public and the taxpayer".
"Our protection is under the contract, it's not related to what happened in the UK. In fact Connex are disputing some of the claims," said Mr Allen.
When asked by members of the Oireachtas committee whether the RPA had examined the history of Connex in the UK, Mr Allen replied that they didn't have detailed information on that but that they were only interested in comparable operations.
"The RPA did not select Connex, that was done by the Department of Public Enterprise. Whether they looked into the UK operation I don't know," said Mr Allen.
"The image of Connex internationally is very good, the image in the UK is not. Our interest is in comparable operations. They have revenues of €3 billion per annum and have 20 operations worldwide. We have no concerns they are financially robust enough to handle Dublin," he added.
"If Connex doesn't perform to criteria there will be very severe penalties. If they perform well, they will get a certain bonus under the contract," he said.
Under the current five-year contract, the RPA have the right to terminate the contract with Connex if they fail to perform satisfactorily, Mr Allen added.