The prospects of CIE nurturing enough public trust to replace the car as a mode of transport for city commuters are remote as ever. The latest is that the company plans to tender for the right to run Luas.

This, remember, is the company which has managed to throw £29.1 million (€37 million) at a rail safety programme with "very few" previously reported unreasonable risks being solved, according to consultants for the Department. Separately, CIE has been involved in a signalling contract that has exceeded its budget several times over and is now subject to questions in the Oireachtas. No one pretends we can have the same service as comparable cities and states without adequate subvention but it would be nice to know there was some chance of the investment producing results.

In a company where corporate governance seems to reflect the dark ages of political patronage, there is little hope for such a result. In the same week that the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mary O'Rourke, praised the departing chairman of Bord na Mona for taking the company from the State sector to public limited company status, the possibility is again raised that the board of a company - CIE - might not feature the chief executive and/or the finance director. Good enough to run the company but not to have a say in its direction . . .