HOW many Fianna Fail and Progressive TDs take the bus to work? Not one, I’d say. So I don’t imagine bus users are at the forefront of their minds as they drive into the enormous car park at Leinster House on those few mornings they show up for work.
Little wonder bus users get such a raw deal. Autumn, shortly to be upon us, is not just the season of mist and mellow fruitfulness, but also of queuing in wind and rain for buses that drive past full up.
We should, of course, be sitting in a bus terminal in Temple Bar. But many years ago Charles Haughey, not known for catching the 43 home to Kinsealy of an evening, commissioned a “left bank” and cancelled the terminal.
Dublin has 1,082 buses, but its burgeoning population and sprawling geography require more. From September 25, pensioners will be given free travel all day long — that will mean an extra 10,000 passengers a day. So Dublin Bus wants to buy 100 vehicles this year and another 100 next year.
But it is not being allowed to, because Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats are fighting about privatisation. Mary Harney says no more double-deckers can be bought until 25% of bus routes are privatised. The company unions won’t agree to that, nor will Fianna Fail. A compromise brokered by the transport minister, Martin Cullen — that 15% of any new routes be privatised — has been rejected by Harney. Naturally, Bertie Ahern is allowing the PD tail to wag the dog in order to keep up the appearances of unity.
Advertisement
Why are the PDs so fixated with privatisation that they won’t allow Dublin the extra buses it needs? Why are they even hitching these two unrelated issues together? Something to do with a floundering party being “radical rather than redundant”, I’d guess. But a PD spokeswoman explains that “competition for bus routes had been shown to work in Stockholm and Copenhagen”. A consoling thought as we watch the 150 splash past jammed tighter than a Third World train.
It’s all the more annoying given that the government wants to ease congestion in Dublin by persuading commuters to get out of their cars and onto public transport. Why would anyone in their right mind abandon a comfy car for the right to elbow their way onto a bus? Only little people use buses and they have never expected much from ministers who get chauffeured around the city in Mercedes.
But Sinn Fein is determined to force the Fenian dead upon us — witness their relentless hunger-strike commemorations — and one of its Wicklow councillors recently got stroppy about the “Daly” part of Bray’s title being forgotten. Once that happened, Iarnrod Eireann had no choice but to stick up signs saying “Bray/Daly” and underneath in Irish “Bré/I Dhálaigh”. Their station in Dun Laoghaire is now, legally, going to have to be called Dun Laoghaire/Mallin as well.
Advertisement
Sinn Fein’s councillor (who ain’t getting his name in this paper) might think this wheeze will be good for a few votes in next year’s general election. He is more likely to find that, as with the attempt to force-feed the name An Daingean on the people of Dingle, Bray/Daly will generate groans rather than gains.
We’ll just start without you
Even though Croke Park is on their doorsteps, Dublin’s football fans can’t seem to get there in time for throw-in. Last weekend a 4pm start was delayed by 15 minutes because the stadium was only 25% full at 3.30pm.
Like many successful Irish events, Dublin football games are bound up with the vast consumption of drink. Having a few pints before the game has become an integral part of the day’s festivities for Dublin fans, some of whom then attempt to smuggle cans of cider and lager past the security barriers. The fact that a good proportion of the 80,000 spectators are slightly inebriated seems to add to the good cheer of the day.
But putting back the starting time of games only encourages the Dubs to come later and later. “Sure, they can’t start without us,” seems to be the feeling as fans order another round. It’s time the GAA did start without them. Even if the stadium is only half full at 4pm next Sunday, Dublin’s semi-final should go ahead. That way they might be on time for the final.
Advertisement
Different strokes for Donegal folks
Donegal is a foreign country, they do things differently there. Central to any analysis of the garda corruption scandals that have beset the county has to be the nature of the place. Wedged by Northern Ireland into the extreme northwest of the island, its back to the sea, Donegal is linked to the republic by a slender isthmus. Psychologically the links are even more tenuous.
Deprived of proper county neighbours, Donegal people tend to turn in on themselves. Its politics is idiosyncratic, throwing up such figures as Niall Blaney and Jim McDaid. Its business community is endlessly interlinked. Donegal is policed unlike any other Irish county — it is impossible to conceive of the widespread and long-running corruption uncovered by Justice Frederick Morris happening elsewhere.
That otherness is not all bad, it has given us talents such as Enya, Frank McGuinness and Peadar O’Donnell. Daniel O’Donnell too, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Advertisement
Has any other manager in football history been told to take a hike before his team even plays a competitive fixture? Surely all that is left is for Dunphy to demand that the next Irish manager quit before he’s even appointed.