Political reaction: Opposition parties have reacted with a mixture of scepticism and incredulity to the Government's transport plan with Fine Gael describing it as a "con job" aimed at deluding voters ahead of the next general election.
Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton said virtually all of the transport projects "unveiled" yesterday had previously been announced by the Government.
"There is little reason to believe that the catalogue of overruns and delayed transport projects won't continue," given the Government had failed to deliver such previously promised initiatives as the Critical Infrastructure Bill and the Dublin Transport Authority, he said.
In a similar vein, Labour's transport spokeswoman Róisín Shortall said: "We all remember the National Health Strategy, published with great fanfare in 2001, yet four years on the problems in the health service are as acute as ever."
She said it was particularly disappointing to see that Irish Rail's plan for a Dublin interconnector linking Heuston and Connolly stations had been put "to the end of the list", with a target completion date of 2015.
Green Party transport spokesman Eamon Ryan welcomed the commitments on public transport but said they were being delivered too late. "The long-distance car commuting patterns that have been established by this Government are going to be very hard to reverse."
The absence of a National Transport Authority to oversee the plan showed the Government was still "planning on the hoof", Mr Ryan said, adding: "Mary Harney and Bertie Ahern should be apologising . . . for how they got it wrong by separating the two Luas lines in the city centre and for putting off the metro for so many years."
Iarnród Éireann welcomed the plan to invest in rail infrastructure, saying the Dublin interconnector would quadruple the number of passenger journeys on Dart and commuter lines.
The employers' group Ibec also welcomed the plan but said reforms were needed to deliver it, including legislation aimed at fast-tracking the planning process for major projects.
In contrast, the heritage group An Taisce said greater attention should to be given to strategical environmental issues, including the need to reduce greenhouse gas transport emissions in line with international obligations.
The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation welcomed the "overall thrust" of the plan, but said it was somewhat disappointed it did not include measures to improve air access into the regions.
Dublin Chamber of Commerce chief executive Gina Quin described the plan as "bold and ambitious", saying "it contains most of the proposals that our members had been seeking".
Trade union representatives were less enthusiastic, with Siptu national industrial secretary Michael Halpenny criticising the omission of "any meaningful proposals in respect of Dublin Bus" and Bus Éireann.
Echoing such thoughts, the general secretary of the National Bus and Railworkers' Union, Liam Tobin, described the lack of adequate buses in the plan as "incredibly short-sighted, especially given the fact that all the experts agree that buses provide the quickest and cheapest solution to the current traffic congestion in the capital".
The Construction Industry Federation, Engineers Ireland, the Irish Hotels Federation and the regional development lobby group Irish Rural Link welcomed the plan.
