Boom wasted on rat-race roads going nowhere

FOR many the unkindest aspect of the recent past was the absence of humane working conditions while organising young families and commuting to and from work.

The line promoted was that stress was normal when it was patently abnormal for workers to be forced to rouse toddlers at 5am to take them to creches or their grandparents before stoically rejoining the rush hour traffic jam, and not finally reconnecting with young family members until late in the evening.

Instead of demolishing hills and archaeological sites and building roads for obsolescent oil-driven cars and grossly fuel inefficient truck freight, the large revenues generated by the late Celtic Tiger should have been used to upgrade rail lines around the country.

Irish rail infrastructure was one of the most comprehensive in the world in 1925 when there was at least 3,400 miles of rail line on the island.

The boom revenues should have been invested also in broadband in urban areas, renationalisation of privatised eircom (previously relatively efficient and State-owned) and renewable electricity production to reduce our 95% dependence on oil and gas through second or third generation techniques.

Sadly for many hard-working families we have had an inhumane situation that caused loss of quality of life while their taxes were not best employed.

Given that obvious infrastructural investment requirements were ignored and people were encouraged to believe roads were necessary for rat-race commuting, it would be of interest now to have an independent audit by housing experts from outside the country to evaluate the standards of more than 600,000 houses constructed in the Celtic Tiger era from the point of view of environmental and energy efficiency.

Do we Irish have foresight?

Tom Ryan

The Forts

Dún Bleisce

Co Limerick