The fact that we have moved within 15 years from being one of the poorest countries in western Europe to becoming one of its best-off states has left us struggling with a grossly inadequate infrastructure, writes Garret FitzGerald. In particular, our transport system has totally failed to keep pace with the near-doubling of our working population since 1991.
In the meantime, during and since the Celtic Tiger period, there has been a quite extraordinary lack of integrated planning, in particular for our capital city, which, most unwisely, has been allowed to sprawl more than 50 miles into its hinterland.
To mention just a few examples: despite a decade of promises there is still no Dublin Transport Authority and no integrated ticketing. Inadequate trams run where there should - and could - have been trains, capable of coping with the current and projected traffic demand.
And masses of tiny apartments have been allowed to be built which will be incapable of coping with the future family needs of our younger generation.
Moreover, many of the promised bus corridors have yet to be created, and some that do exist are under-used, apparently because of prolonged and persistent disagreement within Government over the provision of buses by public or by private enterprises.
All of this has had a profound impact on the lives of those who work or study in Dublin, almost doubling the proportion of people driving to work by car. This reflects the fact that the working population of Dublin has risen by 56 per cent since 1991, and because public transport has failed to increase its share of commuter travel, which for decades has been stubbornly stuck at 22 per cent, the proportion of these commuting by car has increased by one-fifth.
This shift to car commuting occurred during the Celtic Tiger period 1991-2002 but, perhaps because of the opening of the Luas - inadequate though its peak capacity may be - it stalled, at least temporarily, after 2002.
Interestingly, the proportion who walk to work in Dublin has risen by about one-sixth since 1991 - partly, it would appear, because cycling has become so dangerous that the proportion travelling to work by that means has almost halved.
Since 1991 there have also been major changes in the pattern of educational commuting. In the case of primary schools the proportion of Dublin children travelling on foot has dropped from almost one-half in 1986 to under one-quarter, and the much smaller proportion who used to cycle to school has fallen by four-fifths, while the share of primary school children going by bus has also dropped, by one-third.
As a result of all these changes, the proportion of such children who are brought to primary school by car has doubled, to 56 per cent of the total. Clearly, for a combination of reasons, a majority of Dublin parents are no longer prepared to allow their younger children to travel to school on their own.
Parents' concerns about the dangers of cycling have also more than halved the proportion of secondary school children using their bicycle to get to school, and one-fifth fewer now walk there also.
These changes have led to a doubling of the proportion being brought there by car. About 5 per cent of Dublin secondary school-children now drive themselves to school! But two-fifths of secondary students still walk to school, and one-quarter still take a bus.
Perhaps surprisingly, almost one-quarter of third-level students walk to their university or college - a one-sixth higher proportion than in 1991. But the number cycling there has fallen by almost one-quarter - instead these now drive themselves to their third-level institution.
Another dimension of this problem is the length of time that many commuters have to spend travelling to and from work. In most of the country only a small minority of workers have to spend over two hours a day commuting.
But in almost all of Leinster this problem affects a much higher proportion of workers. Between one-fifth and one-quarter of all workers in Meath, Kildare and Wicklow spend over two hours each day commuting - and some of them spend over three hours doing so.
Moreover in counties like Kildare and Meath one-quarter of workers have to leave for work before 7am - one in 10 of them before 6.30am. In Kildare the number leaving before 7am almost doubled between 2002 and 2006. All this must eat into family life in a deeply antisocial way, especially where both parents face this problem.
Since 1991 a combination of these greatly changed patterns of commuting to work and to schools and colleges has led to a virtual doubling of the number of Dubliners of various ages travelling by car each morning and evening: from 185,000 to 342,000.
Even allowing for the impending slowdown in economic growth, the number at work in Dublin is likely to grow by one-quarter between now and 2020, and the number in the educational system will grow by a similar amount as a result of the one-third increase in the birth rate since 1994 - to which, of course, we must add the inflow of young people born elsewhere. (There are currently 120,000 such young people under 20). Clearly, there is little or no room for a further increase in car traffic at peak hours, and for public transport to be able to cope with this now inevitable increase in peak transport demand in Dublin would need to achieve a two-and-a-quarter times increase in its capacity within the next dozen years.
But that underestimates the problem - for, even if rail commuter capacity is doubled, to allow room on our streets for well over double the existing number of buses it would, of course, be necessary to reduce the existing volume of car traffic - and that in turn will further increase the need for more bus services.
The scale and urgency of what needs to be done in order to make it possible for those working in Dublin in a dozen years' time to get to work and for their children to get to school and college contrasts most strikingly with the lethargic pace at which bus lanes are being introduced and with the persistent failure either to permit private companies to buy their own buses to operate additional services or else to finance the purchase of additional buses for Dublin Bus.
And the Government is still putting off to an indefinite future preparations for the introduction of road pricing - the most crucial element of commuter transport policy.
Wasted years of inadequate action or inaction have now brought us up against a transport crisis that will not go away, but will get worse with every month of further delay.