{"id":531140,"date":"2026-07-03T13:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T13:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/531140\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T13:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T13:16:19","slug":"e50-million-squandered-on-failed-irish-rail-project-doherty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/531140\/","title":{"rendered":"\u20ac50 million squandered on failed Irish Rail project &#8211; Doherty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Donegal Deputy Pearse Doherty has slammed what he called the &#8220;extraordinary waste of taxpayers\u2019 money&#8221; on Irish Rail.<\/p>\n<p>The Sinn F\u00e9in spokesperson on Finance today said the latest revelations surrounding the failed Irish Rail Traffic Management System are absolutely staggering.<\/p>\n<p>It follows the revelation that Iarnr\u00f3d Eireann has written off \u20ac50m on a planned national traffic management system to coordinate train services.<\/p>\n<p>Raising the issue with T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris during Leaders\u2019 Questions, Deputy Doherty said: \u201cOnce again, the public is left asking &#8211; who is taking responsibility for the extraordinary waste of taxpayers\u2019 money that has become a hallmark of your government?\u201d <\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cMore than \u20ac50 million has already been written off on a project that has failed safety testing, is more than two years behind schedule and, by any reasonable measure, has been a complete failure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut incredibly, the waste does not end there with you. We now learn that taxpayers are footing a bill of \u20ac100,000 every single week while a decision is made on whether the contract should even be terminated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd on top of that, the government is now spending a further \u20ac200,000 simply to review how this debacle happened in the first place.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Deputy Doherty added: \u201cWhile tens of millions of euro are being squandered on this failed project, commuters are being told there is no funding to deliver new bus services this year, no new rail services this year, no new rural services this year.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-sans font-semibold text-xl md:text-[30px] leading-9 text-primary w-full\">\n        You may also be interested in\n    <\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/lead-stories\/over-e93000-raised-for-killybegs-family-who-lost-home-in-fire-640210\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Over \u20ac93,000 raised for Killybegs family who lost home in fire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/over-euro-93-000-raised-for-killybegs-family-who-lost-home-in-fire.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Over \u20ac93,000 raised for Killybegs family who lost home in fire\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/courts\/driver-banned-for-two-years-over-road-traffic-offences-640120\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Driver banned for two years over road traffic offences\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/driver-banned-for-two-years-over-road-traffic-offences.png\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Driver banned for two years over road traffic offences\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cThis is not simply about one failed contract. It is about a culture of waste that is tolerated, accountability is absent and nobody in government ever appears to carry responsibility for the millions in public money that is squandered. <\/p>\n<p>He concluded: \u201cSo who is going to be held responsible for this latest fiasco?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd what immediate steps will you take to stop further public money being poured into a project that has already become one of the most expensive failures in the history of our public transport system?\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donegal Deputy Pearse Doherty has slammed what he called the &#8220;extraordinary waste of taxpayers\u2019 money&#8221; on Irish Rail.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-531140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}