On the evening of Friday 21st August 2009, one pier of the Broadmeadow Viaduct just north of Malahide station collapsed, leaving the Dublin-Belfast Rail way line suspended in mid air. Immediately following the collapse and while on site on the evening of the 21st August, the Commissioner for railway safety requested that Iarnród Éireann (IÉ) identify all other structures vulnerable to scour and arrange that they be inspected. The Acting Chief Civil Engineer of IÉ gave this instruction to his staff and the Railway Safety Commission (RSC) was regularly updated as to progress made.
The RSC also made the decision to investigate this incident in terms of IÉ's compliance with the Railway Safety Act 2005, as amended, ("the Act"). This investigation took the form of a compliance audit focusing on IÉ's inspection regimes for track and structures. The audit comprised a series of interviews with staff from the following departments; Chief Civil Engineer (CCE), New Works and the Training School.