From a distance, you can see clearly. From France, I saw again how poor the Republic still is in terms of the quality of its infrastructure. France can be seductive. It has lots of problems, we know. It has probably over-spent on public services; it is over-centralised and over-interventionist; it might even have suffered from follies de grandeur.

But some simple comparisons between the Republic and France cry out as soon as you drive off the ramp of the ferry.

There are minor roads in France of a quality that exist almost nowhere in the State, save our new bypasses. One of my holiday navigators was wont to see a map and say, "Avoid that D99 or other - it's a `piddly' little side road", but D99 would turn out to be a Brands Hatch compared to what we would expect from such a map here. Every roundabout and all its exits are sign-posted well in advance. Each exit is sign-posted individually. Contrast that with hundreds of roundabouts in the Republic. The smallest of towns has consistent signs for "Centre Ville". The paint on the roads is visible.

The traffic lights have, and have had for years, eye level lights to help the first driver in the queue. Presumably these cost more than the ones we have and, so, we don't buy them. Poor us, we could never have afforded to indulge in such luxuries.

There are motorways like 100km-long runways, and you pay for them, but so be it.

Bicycle lanes are what they should be - of sufficient length and smoothness to make it worthwhile for the cyclist, not higgeldy-piggeldy o'er hill and dale type of things provided for Irish eco-friendly cyclists. There are interesting electrically-operated bollards controlling access to small streets in town centres for particular card-holders. An innovative, gadgety thing, but another unheard-of luxury in Irish town centres.

Unsurprisingly, we had to wait to get back to the Republic's suburbia to trundle over bumpy, badly-repaired roads and notice the litter and the overgrowing weeds at the roadsides - and I am not talking about my front garden patch.

We did not run in to one traffic jam a la Dublin, a la Galway, Cork, Limerick and so on, and I don't believe this was sheer good luck. Think of it this way - could a motoring tourist spend two weeks passing occasionally through Irish cities and not once get caught in a jam?

The delightful town of Quimper in Brittany has a river running through it over which there are pedestrian bridges every 50 metres, which makes promenading down by the river all the more attractive. They also make a mockery of arguments in Dublin over one extra pedestrian bridge over the Liffey.

The French penchant for handy gadgetry was also evident at petrol stations, where you can pay for petrol with your credit or other card at the pump, and not have to queue twice; and where you can check in and out of an unmanned motel automatically.

Granted, this is all anecdotal stuff. There was also the £2 cup of ordinary coffee, the poor or non-existent service, and the cost of various standard holiday activities. And some may even say, as I heard an Irish road engineer say of some of our new roads, that French roads are over-specified, better than what is needed.

These anecdotal contrasts show that the Republic is not quite the wealthy place that France is. All our recent economic success is measured and spoken about in terms of growth rates, and product or income per head of population. But these are not measures of the stock of wealth of a state. There are some measures of the stock of wealth of states in terms of financial assets. There are none that I know of in terms of non-financial assets, such as public and private physical infrastructure.

The fact that Ireland has clearly been a poor country for centuries and France a relatively rich one explains a lot. The Republic may be more competitive than France now, but we are starting from a lower base of wealth.

The urgent task of infrastructure development which the State faces should not be thought of as simply building new roads, bridges, tunnels bypasses and so on. It is also surely, please, oh please, about the upgrading and maintenance of our "bockety" stock of roads, rail, water and sewerage. And that's not even to mention what might be called social infrastructure, such as hospitals, schools and housing. We are only beginning to be wealthy, nouveaux riches, if you like. This wealth must deliver tangible and rapid improvements in the quality, as well as quantity, of our physical infrastructure. Or else I'm emigrating.

Oliver O'Connor is managing editor, Fintel Publications