Pity the PDs didn't think of it earlier

News that the PDs have decided to move Dublin Port to Bremore, near Balbriggan, will possibly come as a shock to their Fianna Fail partners in Government.

The shock for the rest of us is even greater. Listening to them, you'd imagine that the PDs have been in opposition for the past decade.

Instead, they've been jointly responsible for several years of serious traffic disruption on the northside and the spending of over €1bn in digging the Port Tunnel.

Isn't it a pity they didn't think of Bremore a bit earlier. That location would be at a more advanced stage of development, and we'd have been saved the cost and disruption associated with the port tunnel.

Footnote: Published as a a letter in the Irish independent.

Incidentally, there's no priority accorded to such a move for Dublin Port in Transport 21, the major infrastructural strategy published only last November by the coalition Government in which the PDs are partners, which is supposed to set out the major transport plans for the next decade. McDowell really is in "back of envelope" territory.