“New” Transport System – Transport 21

November 2nd, 2005 Posted in Ireland

Looks like Ireland will finally be hauled into the 21st century with this magnificent plan that has been put before us. Now here’s for the cynicism.

Supposedly quite a lot of the reported plan has been “unveiled” before and not only once! It has been reported that the metro line to the airport has been announced on 4 separate occasions. Some are not completely convinced, Michael O’Leary called the planned metro the “Noddy train” on todays Morning Ireland because not everybody wants to go directly into the town centre from the airport and the metro will cause too much disruption and cost too much to cater for a small proportion of airport users.

Garret Fitzgerald can’t believe the memory of the public and media alike. And he should know! Is it just a coincidence that an election is looming and that the recent Fianna Fail Ard Fheis with all its trumpets and glory was overshadowed by the untimely death of Liam Lawlor? A brave new plan was exactly what was required to cement Fianna Fail on the front pages of all the papers and on all the news bulletins and probably their place in power for another term. We’re still “not there yet” and I don’t think “we’re getting there”, wherever there is!

I for one won’t be voting for Fianna Fail at the next election. One of the opposition parties called this plan “blatant electioneering” and therein lies the problem. Everything is promised for the medium term; the public votes like lap dogs expecting this great new vista that is put in front of them each election, the government fails miserably to implement all or many of the promises and blames outside factors. Sometimes they just ignore it and it all goes away. Electronic voting anyone?

I don’t know if the opposition party could do much better but it’s worth a try. Thankfully I’m not as cynical as the Beamish ad that proclaimed “It doesn’t matter who you vote for, the government always gets in”.

Donal