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.

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.