Madam, - Watching an RTÉ news programme last Tuesday, I was, firstly, fascinated to hear Seamus Brennan's squirming apologia for the shambles that is Luas; secondly, delighted to hear Garret the Good's damning commentary on how the project has been mishandled; and thirdly, dismayed that nobody in a position of influence appears to read The Irish Times.
Commenting on the Luas lines A and B, Dr FitzGerald incisively observed that there are dangly bits at the city ends of both, which are not connected.
He further observed, in a voice positively dripping with schadenfreude, that the Tallaght line intersects Kevin Myers's bête rouge, the Red Cow Roundabout, before galloping off into the wilderness of Kimmage. On interrogation, the Minister for Transport admitted that these were real problems, though soluble.
He waffled on about digging up Harcourt Street (yet again) and running the famous Metro under the Liffey before making the mind-boggling suggestion that possibly the city centre part of Luas and the bit at Red Cow could be "put on stilts."
A reference to the Letters pages of The Irish Times for September 1996 will show that this proposal is not new. Putting Luas suas was suggested by my good self exactly seven years ago! - Yours, etc.,
EAMON SWEENEY, South Hill, Dartry, Dublin 6.