If I were Charlie McCreevy, there is almost no end to the worthwhile projects on which I would have spent the Exchequer's windfall, starting with more buses for Dublin, in addition to those already ordered, as well as for Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford.

Mr McCreevy could even fund the entire cost of constructing the Government's expanded Luas system, "£400 million-plus" (in Mary O'Rourke's famous estimate), without any need to make it a trendy "public-private partnership".

He could also pay for the £82 million National Conference Centre planned for Spencer Dock, thereby sparing Dublin's skyline from the high-rise mega-scheme which the development consortium insists is required to subsidise this essentially public facility.

Another project with a major beneficial impact would involve replacing the Loop Line bridge with a lighter, more transparent structure to reveal once again a long-lost view of the Custom House. It would only cost £5 million, loose change for the Celtic Tiger.

And if he wanted to make a real impact on reducing Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions, as we are now legally obliged to do, how about spending £200 million to convert the huge coal-fired Moneypoint power station to run on relatively clean natural gas?

The Minister must also be reminded that there are huge areas of deprivation that need to be tackled in Dublin and elsewhere. The City Manager, John Fitzgerald, has warned that if we don't deal with this now when we're rolling in money, it will never be done.