Everyone who heard spokesmen for Iarnrod Eireann and Bus Eireann on RTE's Morning Ireland radio programme yesterday, as they brought such gloomy news for public transport users throughout the State, would have been entitled to conclude that CIE had imploded.
Hardly a train or a bus was moving anywhere because of "wildcat" action by flying pickets of striking Dublin Bus drivers and the seizure by other employees of the CIE group of the crisis in the capital as a chance to vent their own grievances. One way or the other, it was a black day for public transport.
It could not have come at a worse time. In Dublin, at least, the traffic and transport agencies had been getting across their message that commuters should leave their cars at home and travel to work by public transport. The Dublin Bus strike and its knock-on effects have left those who made the switch stranded.
Though some have chosen to walk or cycle to work, many others have reverted to using their cars - especially those who live far beyond walking or cycling distance. The gains made by such initiatives as the Stillorgan Quality Bus Corridor, which saw bus usage jump by 120 per cent, have been undermined.
For years, public transport was treated as a residual service for those who were too poor to own private cars. The view taken by successive governments, at least until recently, was that since public transport lost money, one did not invest any money in it; CIE was to be maintained on a subsistence diet.
Dublin Bus cannot concede its drivers' claim for a 20 per cent pay increase because it has been forced to operate with the lowest level of subsidy of any public transport service in Europe. Over 96 per cent of its running costs must be recouped from bus fares, compared to 40 per cent on average in other EU capitals.
Part of the reason for this approach was the perception that CIE was not only badly managed but also riddled with restrictive practices, built up and assiduously maintained by trade unions over the years. The thesis was that starving the group of resources would turn it into a leaner, less demanding animal.
Despite the Government's allocation of £1.58 billion for public transport in Dublin under the National Development Plan 2000-2006, there has been little or no movement on the subsidy issue. Though there is now a willingness to invest in new buses, trams and trains, public transport is still expected to pay its way.
The recent resignation of Mr Brian Joyce as chairman of CIE brought out into the open its strained relations with the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke. She treated the CIE board with undisguised contempt, something Mr Joyce was no longer prepared to tolerate.
To listen to the Minister, one might imagine that the solution to CIE's problems is to break up the group into its constituent parts and introduce more competition, essentially following the Thatcherite path pursued in Britain since the early 1980s. But few transport experts agree that the results have been beneficial.
So far, at least, Ms O'Rourke has given little indication of how she envisages that competition would work. Under what conditions, for example, would franchises be granted to private operators to run bus routes?
If there is to be widespread competition in the public transport sector in the Greater Dublin area, there would clearly be a need to establish a passenger transport executive or authority to take charge of these matters, in the public interest, with the direct involvement of Dublin Corporation and the other local authorities.
The Minister has already wrested the Luas light rail project from CIE by entrusting an unrepresentative "action/advisory group" with the task of overseeing its delivery. This group, chaired by Mr Padraic White, will probably be asked to vet proposals for private sector involvement in running the Luas system.
Ironically, CIE's imminent demise comes when the Government finally seems to have accepted the argument for serious investment in public transport, particularly in Dublin. Sums of £3 billion to £4 billion are being mentioned in official circles, but it looks as if CIE will not be around to spend all this money.
Ms O'Rourke will outline her plans at a meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee on infrastructural development scheduled for April 11th. It is CIE's misfortune that virtually all of its services should have collapsed in the run-up to this meeting, leaving it defenceless in the face of a Minister who takes no prisoners.