On Thursday the Oireachtas Christmas tree will be erected on the back lawn at Leinster House, or at least what's left of the lawn now that part of it has been converted into a car park during the building of the new extension. The lights on the Coillte tree will be switched on by the Ceann Comhairle, Seamus Pattison, and afterwards there will be a lunch for party leaders.
Thus, the Christmas season may be declared underway, but there is a sour note in all this jollity. Green TD, John Gormley, is very unhappy because, he says, he can't get a cast-iron assurance that the lawn overlooking Merrion Square will be returned to its original condition when work is finished.
The Minister with responsibility for the OPW, Martin Cullen, has told Gormley that it is "the intention" to restore the lawn by autumn 2000, but he feels this is not good enough. He wants the Minister to give a solemn assurance and promise that the asphalt is only temporary. Gormley is worried for two reasons: he says the deepset foundations look permanent to him; and the mindset of the political establishment is to build more car parks and not to take them away. He will not, he says, ever give up on this one. Meanwhile, Gormley's Green colleague, Trevor Sargent, who usually takes the train to work, with his fold-up bicycle under his arm, was forced by Tuesday's rail strike to get on his mountain bike, (necessary to tackle the hard shoulders of Fingal), for the 22-mile ride from Balbriggan. Stopping a couple of times to remove layers of clothes and for a drink of water from his carrier bag it took him two hours each way.
Sargent believes most of our traffic problems are because the decision-makers have very little experience of the day-to-day trauma of commuters. Ministers have cars and drivers and even humble TDs, senators, councillors and civil servants have free and convenient parking. He thinks they should all give up their cars and launch a public transport week. By being forced to take buses, trains and taxis they might be moved to radical measures to help the rest of us cope with daily living. They might even get more taxis on the roads.