You would have to wonder who makes transport policy in Ireland? Is it Seamus Brennan, an elected public representative and Minister for Transport or David Begg, the general secretary of ICTU?

You would be tempted to think that it was Mr Brennan, particularly if you were one of those deluded fools who trooped off to the polls last May and elected him and the other members of the Government. Anyway, it turns out that you are wrong. It is in fact Mr Begg's job to decide how, when and if the mess that passes for a transport system in Ireland should be reformed.

That is the only conclusion that one can draw from Minister, sorry, Mr Begg's behaviour last week. Within hours of an interview with Mr Brennan appearing in The Irish Times the ICTU boss dashed a letter off to the Taoiseach saying that if Mr Brennan did not take back what he said there would be trouble.

Mr Brennan was guilty of the offence of actually trying to do the job he was mandated to do; try to make it easier for people to get to work, home or wherever else they want to go. In the interview he set out his stall in terms of reforming CIÉ, Aer Rianta and transport in Dublin generally. The central thread to all his plans is the introduction of some competition which it is hoped will deliver better and hopefully cheaper levels of service.

This will involve breaking up CIÉ and inviting the private sector to compete in the Dublin bus market. Aer Rianta is also to be broken up to encourage competition between the three international airports, while competition will be further fostered at Dublin Airport by the building of a second independently-run terminal.

These ideas have been floating around for years and predate Mr Brennan's appointment. What differentiates Mr Brennan from his predecessors is that he has very much taken ownership of them and promised to deliver. By doing this he has in effect accepted a challenge declined by his predecessors. He has taken on the unions that dominate both CIÉ and Aer Rianta and by extension the whole trade union apparatus that lies behind them. Fear of the mayhem these unions could cause via rail, bus and airport strikes is the reason that none of Mr Brennan's predecessors sought to implement the policies he has committed himself to see through.

And so he should. What Mr Brennan has proposed sounds pretty much like the sort of thing a minister with any real intention of delivering a better transport system would have to be saying and thinking. It is also the sort of thing the people who elected him would want him to be doing.

So what is the problem? The trouble is that, unfortunately for Mr Brennan, he has committed a cardinal sin under the teachings of the cult of partnership.

Just in case you did not know, partnership - as manifested on Earth by successive wage agreements - is responsible for all our recent economic progress. Partnership alone -and not inward investment, favourable exchange rates, demography or any of the other heresies spouted by economists and other thinkers of impure thoughts - is the sire of the Celtic Tiger.

As the head of the trade union movement Mr Begg is one of the high priests of this cult and a guardian of the godhead. His power comes from his ability to turn off this font of riches at will.

Such is the seriousness of Mr Brennan's transgression that this ultimate sanction has now been threatened. To quote from Mr Begg's letter to the Taoiseach: "Quite frankly, I would fear for the very survival of the agreement if industrial confrontation is provoked in sectors of the economy under the control of the Government".

So it appears to come down to this. An elected Minister tries to push through a couple of important policy initiatives that should have been implemented years ago. Unfortunately this will involve considerable upheaval and potential redundancies at a couple of State companies.

The employees of these companies are understandably worried and pulling out all the stops to protect their own interests. Seeing what is happening as a taste of things to come the trade union movement as a whole has decided to get involved and threatened to go thermo nuclear by getting ICTU to say it will pull out of partnership if Mr Brennan perseveres.

It is hard to believe that the Government would do anything other than call ICTU's bluff, particularly given the lack of widespread support for the current national wage agreement. It is also worth noting that ICTU is also supposed to represent workers in the private sector who have to put up with the second rate service offered by CIÉ and Aer Rianta day-in and day-out as they try to get to work and elsewhere.

Mr Brennan claims to have the full support of the Taoiseach for what he is trying to do and hopefully he does. The Tánaiste has also come out in support. But given the Taoiseach's congenital inability to take a position on anything remotely contentious, one has to wonder just how far he will back Mr Brennan when it comes down to it.

Remember also that Mr Ahern was at one stage a zealous member of the cult of partnership. Watch your back Seamus.