Stuart Walsh is a 20-year-old from Athy and works an 8 a.m.-5 p.m. day as fitter with CIÉ in Inchicore.

It's 44 miles exactly from the town of Athy to Inchicore and although he gets free travel from CIÉ and there is a 6.45 a.m. train that would get him in to Heuston for 7.55 a.m., he wouldn't get to work until 8.30 a.m. That would mean he'd have to work until 5.30 p.m. and wait for the 6.30 p.m. train, arriving in Athy at 7.15 p.m..

So he is on the road by 6.40 a.m., heading for the turn-off to the motorway before the Kilcullen bypass. On Mondays, for some reason, the traffic is backed up for a mile and a half, so he drives through Naas instead.

Back on the dual carriageway, there's the long crawl to Johnstown; Newlands Cross, the Red Cow. The 10-minute delay coming into Inchicore is new; they're building the Luas line. Overall it takes about an hour and 20 minutes.

When he leaves work at 5 p.m., it takes 30 minutes to get to the Red Cow, 15 minutes to get to Kill, about 10 to get to Johnstown. Then about seven minutes on the motorway, 15-20 minutes on the road to Athy and home by 6.30 p.m.

About an hour and a half altogether.

"You'd be wrecked by Friday, but it could be worse. For about six months, I was driving to the North Wall, leaving at 6.45 a.m. and getting to work at 8.45 a.m."

In conversation with Kathy Sheridan