Transport 21 plan - Vital for team to make a good start

Dr Margaret O'Mahony, professor of civil engineering at Trinity College Dublin, has been appointed to lead a high-powered team to help implement the Government's €34.4 billion Transport 21 plan, unveiled by Transport Minister Martin Cullen last week.

Professor O'Mahony will act as non-executive chairwoman of the team that will establish the Dublin Transport Authority (DTA).

Mr Cullen rejected opposition criticism over not having the DTA in place before last week's announcement. He contended that the first necessary steps were to have the plans drawn up and the money allocated for the mammoth project.

His reasoning seemed sound and understandable, because it is imperative from the Government's perspective that he get the whole thing right at the outset, especially as his own ministerial record of involvement - in matters like the €52 million purchase and refurbishment of Farmleigh House or the extravagant debacle surrounding electronic voting machines - do not inspire confidence. The voting machines have already cost taxpayers almost €60m without any tangible benefits.

Professor O'Mahony has an impressive academic record. She worked in the United States as a member of key committees of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies as well as on road programmes in developing countries.

Other members of the four-strong team that will set up the DTA are the Assistant Secretaries-General of the Department of Transport John Lumsden and Pat Mangan, and Colin Hunt, a special adviser to Mr Cullen. It is vital in setting the transportation plan in motion that the whole thing should be initiated as they intend to continue.

The new team will define the remit of the DTA and also identify the key people to work in the authority. This will involve headhunting key individuals who have demonstrated prowess in delivering significant transport infrastructures on time and on budget.

What is needed is innovative people with clear ideas on how to deliver within tight budgetary constraints. It is important that the right people are selected.

This Government has surrounded so much of its actions with highly organised and extravagant public relations campaigns that the public is already skeptical about the latest pronouncements. The amount of money involved is too much for most people to understand.

Of course, if the experiences in trying to build roadways in Carrickmines, Glen O'The Downs, or Tara are anything to go by, there will inevitably be a veritable mountain of stumbling blocks put in the way of the national transportation plan.

Our crazy planning process will probably be the biggest impediment.

People have been encouraged to lodge nuisance objections and then fight them through the court at no cost to themselves, but at enormous cost to the taxpayers who are footing the bill for fatuous and frivolous objections.

The only winners are the legal practitioners, who have been bilking the public in the name of democracy. Ultimately democracy will be the biggest loser, if more and more people become disillusioned with our political process.