Business Opinion: "The problem of traffic gridlock and an inadequate public transport system is eroding competitiveness and adding substantial costs to small business in term of lost man hours and delays in getting people to work and products to market" - Pat Delaney, the director of the Small Firms Association, September 1st 2002, on the day that schools in the capital reopen and traffic chaos returns.

"The decision will result in the loss of significant pre-Christmas weekend trade to the city centre and will have a devastating effect on companies who are already suffering because of the LUAS disruption and a significant reduction in consumer spending" - Pat Delaney, the director of the Small Firms Association on October 9th, the day it was announced that there would be partial weekend closures of the Dart in order to improve the "inadequate public transport system".

These two quotes rather crudely sum up the reason why Ireland is a first world country with a second world infrastructure despite having enjoyed a decade of spectacular growth.

Pat Delaney is not a stupid man - far from it - but you really have to wonder what is going on when the SFA, which is part of IBEC, can issue two statements like that with a straight face.

There is no point at this stage rehashing all the arguments about whether or not the Dart line needs to be closed in order to be upgraded. The issue is much simpler than that. It comes down to two questions. Do we want a better infrastructure and how much will we put up with in order to get it.

The answer to the first question is undoubtedly "yes". The answer to the second seems to be "not very much" given the fuss that was generated over the plans to partly close the Dart.

And the problem is not just confined to the Dart. The national roads programme is massively delayed because the farming community refused to play ball until they had extorted sufficient funds from the tax.

It is pretty incredible then that in the run up to the election, the IFA could issue a wish list to the various political parties containing the following statement: "capital expenditure to reduce Ireland's infrastructural deficit needs to be given priority in order to support future economic growth and remove bottlenecks from the economy."

Equally amazing is the position of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. In its 2003 pre-budget submission it bangs on about "a crying need for a first-class public transport system in our cities and between them, for modern hospitals, schools, childcare facilities, and community centres and for improved roads."

This is the same organisation that is leading the opposition to plans to reorganise CIÉ and Aer Rianta in order to provide better public transport.

And of course the most bizarre of the lot is the attitude of the Government. You could almost feel sorry for John Lynch, the CIÉ chairman. Last Monday, he goes in to see the minister for transport, Séamus Brennan, to brief him on the need to close down the Dart at the weekends in order to significantly improve it and to meet future requirements.

Instead of getting the full backing of the Minister for this most necessary of measures, he suddenly finds himself on the back foot. The Minister's spin doctors are saying that Monday was the first that Mr Brennan knew of the matter - which frankly stretches credulity - but that he is going to sort things out.

Sure enough, a few days later political victory of sorts is created for Mr Brennan when works for the three weekends leading up to Christmas are cancelled. Excellent, the Minister has saved Christmas and averted yet another disaster at CIÉ.

The other way of looking at it is that all the Minister has done is delay a much-needed infrastructural investment project rather than take a limited amount of flak over the closure of half of the Dart at weekends.

It doesn't sit very well with all of Mr Brennan's talk of getting to grips with problems and delivering results. But, in his defence, we must presume that he is reflecting the wishes of the public he represents and in his view they do not want the Dart closed down at weekends in the run up to Christmas. The corollary of this is that they don't really care if the upgrading of the Dart is delayed, over budget or never happens.

It is equally true that the Small Firms Association, the IFA, ICTU and every other organisation that is holding up or interfering in infrastructural development is also reflecting what it believes are the wishes of its members.

It would appear then that there is, in reality, only a very limited appetite in this country for paying the non-financial price for improved transport infrastructure. If that is the case then maybe we should stop moaning about it.