Some moments of television are unforgettable. The day in 1990 when the late Brian Lenihan turned to a camera in RTE and used the expression "on mature recollection" and Mr Padraig Flynn's "you try it", in relation to the upkeep of his three households, are very memorable occasions.

Last Monday, Mr Tom Parlon, president of the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA), provided another. Farmers would, he announced, be withdrawing co-operation from the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) system used to acquire land for the State's roads programme, because they were not getting enough compensation.

Having been the recent beneficiaries of monumental national effort in the foo-tand-mouth crisis, Mr Parlon on behalf of these same farmers, rejected criticism from those who cited the national interest in the roads programme. He particularly berated the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation (IBEC), with the memorable words: "I don't see it was any of their business".

What the State is attempting to do in relation to the roads building programme is not to lay the ground for future expansion of the economy; it is engaged in a desperate catch-up exercise to maintain investment despite severe congestion on our out-dated road network.

Anyone who travels in this State knows the urgent need for infrastructural relief. From the outskirts of Dublin - a city that now compares perhaps less favourably with Bangkok since the infrastructural improvements there - traffic on the main inter-urban routes virtually shuts down. The names Ashbourne, Dunshaughlin, Enfield, Kildare town and Kilmacanogue are regulars on the radio reports warning of five-mile tailbacks.

The cities of Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford all have their own problems with congested access.

The inter-urban travel times are at an unacceptable level, reflecting the fact that about 2 per cent of the State's entire road network is of motorway standard. The European average, including Eastern Europe, is about 12 to 14 per cent.

Business interests in the south-east this week complained they were not getting their fair share of new foreign investment and industrial start-ups. However, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland point out they cannot force investment to the regions and investors will not go because they cannot move their products and services efficiently. The worry is that when it becomes too congested, existing business will move to survive.

It is against this background that the Government has asked the National Roads Authority (NRA) to telescope its 1998 Roads Needs Study into a seven-year plan, a move that requires a 300 per cent increase in output. New motorways or high-grade dual carriageways are planned between Dublin and each of the major cities in the Republic as well as the Border. Already this programme has been beset by galloping inflation at 12.5 per cent, about twice the national average. But the biggest danger is in not spending fast enough.

Against this urgency, each new route has at least one campaign group insisting the road go elsewhere. Recently the NRA's intentions to allow tolls on the new inter-urban roads provoked further criticism and added fuel to the anti-roads campaigns.

NOW THE IFA has decided nothing short of a radical increase will secure farmers' co-operation with the CPO system. However, with an average payment of about £10,000 per acre, it is hard to feel excessively sorry for them. In fairness to the farmers, there will be some severance but that is what the money is being paid for. There is also the real prospect that the remaining land could become more valuable as a result of the motorway.

The unilateral declaration to withdraw from the CPO system is a little strange, given that the process is implemented in only 5 per cent of cases. In 95 per cent of the cases, the terms are agreed by individual farmers with the local authority in advance of any referral to arbitration.

If the take-up of individual farmers is as high as 95 per cent, and this newspaper has been assured it is, then it is hard to see what the IFA leadership is engaging in, other than the most ill-advised public relations exercise.

Industry has suffered and the tourist industry has particularly suffered in support for the farmers. The population has stuck with the farming community through many food scares.

The latest remark that IBEC should mind its own business and turn away while the farmers add an estimated £400 million to the cost of the main motorways will simply confirm what the urban population has already suspected: farmers are prepared to put their own greed before the good of the State. Given the timing and recent crises, it smacks of a clear outbreak of foot-in-mouth disease.