The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has confirmed his reservations about the ESRI review of the National Development Plan and said that parts of the report were short-sighted and lacking in vision.
The Opposition has accused the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, of lacking leadership, with Cabinet members criticising the report. Mr Brennan has become the third Cabinet member to publicly question its merits.
Saying there was a "financial control tone" to many of the ESRI's recommendations on infrastructure, he joined the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, and the Minister for Communications, Mr Dermot Ahern, in criticising the report. The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, has also indicated opposition to the recommendations on health.
The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said the Taoiseach had given a "private nod" to the Cabinet to criticise the report while saying himself that the review should not be dismissed.
"He has done nothing to rein in four boot boy Ministers who have unreservedly trashed the review," Mr Rabbitte said. Noting Mr Ahern's call for careful study of the report, he said the Ministers had given the "real response" of the Government.
Mr Brennan said the report should be given serious consideration, but he had particular problems with its analysis of the Luas project and parts of the national roads programmes. He also found fault with its evaluation of the need for a Dublin metro service.
"It gives the impression that the metro wouldn't be a good idea by talking about further enhancing bus capacity," he said.
"If they think that a model city like Dublin and indeed other cities in the 21st century can be based exclusively on buses . . . I think that would be short-sighted." Mr Brennan said Dublin would require a modern commuter rail system in 2020 and afterwards. This would have to include a metro or an extended Luas system, he said.
Accusing the ESRI of not doing its homework on Luas, he said the project now near completion was significantly different to the one in the original plans. "I feel that cost comparisons across the two projects are not valid."
Mr Brennan said the national roads programme had changed since the National Development Plan started and said there was no point in going back to the study behind the original plan.
Accusing the ESRI of being unambitious, he said: "They are recommending that we might scale down the design of some roads for low traffic. I think that would be retrenchment. I think we would regret that in years to come.
"In 10 or 20 years time, we'd end up having to revisit them with people saying 'why couldn't the planners have had the vision to build these roads properly in the first place?'"
The Minister said he would take on board fully "some" of the ESRI's broader thinking on roads, rail and airports.
