There is still no sign that any steps will be taken to curtail unsustainable suburban sprawl along the motorway network, writes Frank McDonald.
The ghost of Edith Piaf singing Je Ne Regrette Rien might well have haunted St Patrick's Hall in Dublin Castle yesterday when the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Transport launched the Government's new transport plan.
Certainly, not a hint of regret was expressed by them for the policy failures of the past eight years. These include pursuing a transport investment programme which has been overwhelmingly biased in favour of roads rather than public transport as well as presiding, in laissez-faire fashion, over the sprawl of Dublin and other urban areas.
The same ministers who decided in May 1998 that Dublin's two Luas lines would not join up in the city centre are now promising that they will. It has taken that long for the penny to drop.
And the route now proposed, via Dawson Street and College Green, is precisely the same one they rejected so firmly seven years ago.
The "Transport 21" plan, with its Luas line extensions, Metro lines and city-centre rail interconnector, is a blueprint for a consolidated city.
But it is coming too late to make a critical difference to the shape of Dublin, because the capital's commuter belt now extends outwards for 50 to 60 miles to places like Gorey, Co Wexford, and Rochfortbridge, Co Westmeath.
What has driven this expansion is not just the phenomenon of high property prices in Dublin, but also the provision of new and improved roads - motorways, in some cases - which have served to extend the city's orbit, and the rush by county councillors everywhere to rezone land for housing estates targeted at long-distance commuters.
Minister for Transport Martin Cullen, who has played a central role in developing "Transport 21", previously served as minister for the environment, with responsibility for the planning system. Yet not once did he use his power to quash local development plans involving the massive overzoning of land for these farflung suburbs of Dublin.
There has been no evidence of the "joined-up planning" now being promised, and no indication that any steps will be taken in the future to curtail unsustainable suburban sprawl along the motorway network, which the Government now says will finally be completed in 2010, four years after the current National Development Plan expires.
Neither has there been any review of this essentially Dublin-centred motorway programme to determine whether all of it is really necessary; it has simply been reconfirmed. The only major new element is the proposed "Atlantic Corridor", snaking southwards from Letterkenny via Sligo, Limerick, Galway and Cork to Waterford.
Dr Edward Walsh, former president of the University of Limerick, has canvassed this link for several years, in the interests of promoting an effective counterbalance to the dominance of Dublin. But it will only come after the motorway programme already in hand has been finished - and under that programme all roads lead to Dublin.
"Up to 2010 our focus is on the major interurban motorways", Mr Cullen said, referring to the Dublin-Cork, Dublin-Galway, Dublin-Limerick, Dublin-Kells and Dublin-Waterford routes. "Post-2010, we expect to develop approximately 150km of dual carriageway, 400km of '2+1' roads and 300km of single-carriageway roads."
As previously announced, there will also be improved services on the mainline rail network, with a train every hour between Dublin and Cork and on the Dublin-Galway and Dublin-Limerick lines (at least during peak periods), as well as better trains, with the delivery of 187 new carriages and railcars promised between now and 2008.
The argument for reopening the Western Rail Corridor has also been accepted, at least in part. The plan pledges to reinstate the line between Ennis and Claremorris via Athenry within its 10-year time span, but the more problematic stretch between Claremorris and Collooney, Co Sligo, is only to be protected as a reservation.
Galway will also benefit from the introduction of a new commuter service to and from Athenry. In the case of Cork, similar services and new stations are planned along the existing Dublin main line as far as Mallow and on the line to Midleton, which is to be reopened. However, that proposal was first made in the Cork LUTS plan back in 1978.
But it is in Dublin that the greatest potential benefits of rail investment should be realised. The most crucial strategic decision - and also the most costly - meant opting for the proposed rail inter-connector between Heuston Station and Spencer Dock, running underground via St Stephen's Green and Pearse Station. Although this would link up all existing and proposed rail services in the Dublin area, with St Stephen's Green becoming the city's transport hub, the schedule of major projects under "Transport 21" shows that it will not be completed until 2015, long after many of the other schemes involving Luas and Metro are shown to be up and running.
Sensibly, the proposed Metro line between St Stephen's Green and Dublin airport is being extended to Swords, apparently because Mr Cullen was impressed by Fingal County Council's plans to build on it; although whether there will be a density of development to justify a capacity of up to 55,000 passengers per hour is a moot point.
The orbital Metro line linking Tallaght with Clondalkin, Blanchardstown and Ballymun seems unlikely to reach anything approaching such a capacity provision, given its "Edge City" environment, although it might help to take some pressure off the M50 which, even after its upgrading at a cost estimated at €1 billion, will be as congested as it is today.
The overall price-tag for "Transport 21" is put at €34.4 billion, making it by far the most ambitious investment programme in the history of the State.
It will also be considerably less skewed in favour of roads, with some €16 billion earmarked for public transport projects. Whether it all happens, however, will depend on sustained economic growth.