A botched Irish Rail IT project that was labelled ‘unrealistic’, three years before it was written off last month to the value of €50million, could still cost the taxpayer four times that amount.

Irish Rail has admitted the project was going nowhere in 2023 but continued to pour another €30million into the failing traffic management system.

The State is now locked into a contract with a Spanish tech firm, Indra, that has yet to complete the first phase of the contract, which represents just 3% of the project.

Members of the Irish Rail executive team said this ‘vital’ project could cost the taxpayer another €205million, or more, and delay rail infrastructure expansion programmes.

Indra was awarded the contract in 2020 for the system – which was billed as the ‘brains’ of the Irish Rail network – after it promised it could deliver 96% of the project.

A deadline was set for 2024, but – six years later – no system exists, the Oireachtas Transport Committee heard yesterday.

Despite this, Indra, which has refused to comment on the matter, boasts on its website that its software is used within the Irish Rail management system.

No new deadlines have been set for Indra to complete the first phase of the project, and the firm has reduced the number of personnel assigned to its development, according to the NTA.

Indra has not been paid for several months, and Irish Rail wrote down the value of the contact as €50million in its most recent accounts. Irish Rail CEO Mary Considine said ‘at every stage’ Indra gave Irish Rail and the National Transport Authority ‘assurances’ that the product would be delivered.

‘At the end of the day, they are a multibillion-dollar company,’ she said.

Ms Considine and Paul Hendrick, director of capital projects, detailed several ‘failures’, which emerged early in the project’s lifespan. According to Irish Rail, Indra claimed the ‘generic product’ would be available from 2021 and, by 2022, it became clear the generic product, or any bespoke software, was not developed.

The contract was restructured twice between 2023 and 2024, but no new system or prototype was forthcoming. According to Irish Rail, at the end of 2023, the board ‘concluded that the Indra programme was unrealistic’ and the contract needed further revision.

Irish Rail’s management then spent a further € 30 million on the project between the end of 2023 and May of this year, which has now been completely written off.

Fine Gael TD Grace Boland claimed that it appeared the contractor was ‘rewarded for failing to meet numerous deadlines’ with new contracts and additional fees.

Sinn Féin TD Pa Daly said €50million had been effectively ‘wasted’. Non-compliant and unsafe versions of the software were presented to Irish Rail in 2025, and the same issues were not resolved in a new version presented last month.

Almost €100million has been spent on internal teams and associated costs – meaning the State spent more to deliver the contract than on the product itself.

Transport committee chair and Fine Gael TD Michael Murphy said: ‘Red flags were present going back to 2022. At that stage, you already knew the product was not what you originally purchased.’

The rail company is exploring legal options to collapse the contract but refused to provide specific details.

Ms Considine said Irish Rail intends to continue progressing the development of a new traffic management system, claiming it is ‘vital’ to modernise the Irish rail network.