The visit by Mrs Monika Wulf Mathies to Ireland in recent days has underlined just how influential the European Commission has become in determining transport and regional policy in this State. Mr Michael Lowry's announcement that the Government has agreed to extend the Luas light railway system for the north side of Dublin as soon as the Tallaght Dundrum line is completed came as a result of Commission pressure. Brussels insisted that the question of whether and when to build a northern line be reopened.
The outcome of the evaluative study which has enabled this decision to be made is a compromise. It still begs the question of why a more advantaged part of the Dublin region should be so privileged. Highlighted here is the irrationality of concentrating so much on reducing the pressure of increased private car usage as a criterion for social choice, rather than the basic needs which are so obviously demanded by the public transport system serving Ballymun and Dublin airport.
But the deal is done and the best must be made of it. These commitments to start the northern line immediately after the other one is finished, to finance the design and research required from the EU budget, and to consider a wider project than was originally envisaged, owe a great deal to Mrs Wulf Mathies and her Commission colleagues. Their influence is wholly welcome and salutary at this stage in the evolution of the Irish system of government.
Evolution may, in fact, be the wrong word to describe what is at stake. Impasse or blockage may be more appropriate to describe a centralised and bureaucratic system inherited from colonial rulers whose least desirable features have been further refined by successive independent governments. It is good to see that the Commission is prepared to insert its own priorities in dealing with central government departments such as those of Mr Lowry or of Mr Howlin's Department of the Environment over the Mutton Island sewerage scheme, which may now be amended to ensure Brussels funding.
All concerned with the improvement of Irish government performance must take notice of the imminent changes required if this State is to optimise the flow of funds beyond 1999, given the rapid economic growth that has brought Irish incomes much closer to the EU average. It will be necessary to introduce a genuine regional and local government dimension, with proper statistical information, if spatial income inequalities are to trigger continued funding or to invent new criteria which would allow deprived parts of the Dublin region to continue to benefit, as they deserve to do from EU funds. The Luas agreement begs this question. It should stimulate a much needed reappraisal of the structure of government in this State.