Some new rail service expansion plans will have to be “rephased or reprioritised” to take account of the additional costs associated with the write down of €50 million on a failed IT project, the National Transport Authority (NTA) has indicated.The Dáil Public Accounts Committee (Pac) was told on Thursday that on top of the sum already written down, at least an additional €3 million spent in recent months on a traffic management system (TMS) will also have been essentially wasted.The TMS is aimed at integrating signals, communications and other systems on the rail network.Irish Rail said despite the write downs, a new TMS system will need to be put in place although it declined to set out an estimated cost.“You are talking about a significant figure,” Irish Rail chief executive Mary Considine said.Asked by Grace Boland of Fine Gael about the consequences for other rail projects, the chief executive of the NTA, Anne Shaw, said the agency needed to assess the implications of decisions taken in relation to the existing IT project as a TMS system was needed for both existing and planned rail services.“We need to consider what that financial impact requirement is and to look across the wider programme to make sure we can continue to deliver that as well,” she said. “It will be a case of rephasing and reprioritising certain things over that period of time but ultimately to make sure that we deliver that.”The committee heard that Spanish company Indra won a contract in 2020 to develop and maintain a TMS system for Irish Rail. The only rival bid was 50 per cent higher. The original cost had been expected to be about €20 million though this later increased to over €30 million.Considine said the board of Irish Rail had written down the value of its investment in the Indra software by about €28 million, after it failed tests in May, as well as about €20 million paid to consultants to support the project.Boland said it appeared that almost as much was spent on “project support” as was paid to Indra.“That is a serious, serious red flag and should have been picked up,” she said.Considine said the board of Irish Rail had made decisions in relation to the project but declined to state what they were. The Irish Times reported on Thursday that in a confidential letter to Irish Rail this week the NTA said it accepted a decision by the board of the train operator to terminate its contract with Indra. However, the NTA said there would be “significant financial consequences”.Irish Rail told the NTA on June 29th that its board wanted the contract with Indra terminated. It suggested entering into a new arrangement with another company, Siemens Mobility, as an alternative, using a mechanism to allow it bypass regular tendering arrangements.Shaw said an independent report by consultants EY into the IT controversy, to be completed by September, would cost about €250,000.Paul McAuliffe of Fianna Fáil said the position of Irish Rail appeared to be that initially it thought it was buying a generic IT system that was “reasonably off the shelf” but ended up in a software development project and ultimately had nothing to show for it.“I can’t disagree with how you have summarised it,” Considine said.