They’ll waste billions and cause urban chaos rather than go by bus

THE political joke last week concerned the comparison between Irish and English politics.

Tue, 08 Nov, 2005 - 00:00

Fergus Finlay is a former political activist and adviser to three governments, the former head of the children's charity Barnardos, a writer and a broadcaster.

In England, David Blunkett neglected adequately to report investments being made by his son and, despite being a close confidante of the prime minister, had to resign. End of political career. In Ireland, Martin Cullen lost nearly €60 million in the e-voting debacle and, despite being given a most lacklustre vote of confidence by his Taoiseach at the time, was handed a budget of €34 billion to play with.

Or was he? The first problem with this so-called Transport 21 initiative is that it is impossible to find any substantiation whatever of its reality. I started by looking at the website of the Department of Transport, which is where you'd expect to find a bit of detail.