Adamstown marks the start of the general election campaign

The turning of the sod in Adamstown may well mark the real beginning of the general election campaign – even though we will have at least two by-elections before then.

The Adamstown story may well have produced groans outside Dublin as just another example of the politics of the Pale dominating the media headlines, but the issues involved go to the heart of what is of most concern to the most volatile section of the electorate.

Young married people, with good jobs and expensive mortgages, are among those most likely to vote, and among those also who are the least tied to any particular political party.

Their main concerns are that the high cost of housing eats up their good incomes, leaving them almost penniless in luxury. Their problems are compounded by the misery of transport into work, with more and more forced further away from their Dublin employment base in a search for a decent house at an affordable price.

Adamstown is a new concept in planning. Many of the processes that previously added to the costs, and the dissatisfaction at the speed of large-scale developments, have been fast-tracked.

So Adamstown will be a new town of 20,000 people initially. But it is unique because the commencement of each phase of housing construction is dependent on completion of infrastructural developments, such as new roads, a new railway station, schools and shops and civic amenities.

According to the plan, once the first 800 houses have been built, the rest must wait on the infrastructure being put in place. But, can you trust the planners, or the politicians, who oversee them, or the builders who are supposed to comply with these exacting requirements, or will we see another bout of shortcuts and long-fingering of promised development completions?

There is a widespread cynicism in the general public about all of this, but really there is no other way forward. Dublin must tackle its immediate housing crisis and must also tackle the transport bottlenecks that arise from that. And nowhere is this more urgent than in the western suburbs.

Yet while the government has acted imaginatively in relation to speeding up the planning process in this the first of several Strategic Development Zones, and in integrating housing and infrastructure in a step by step manner, the whole project is in danger of seizing up because of the obsession with toll roads as a solution.

Bertie Ahern has cavalierly rejected the idea of buying out the M50 toll bridge, even though vehicle rates are three times original projections with more than enough profit, one would think, for the greediest speculator.

But this is the Government's weakness. Not only is Fianna Fáil tied to the concept of tolling and of creating opportunities for private profit out of public infrastructural developments, it still spends four times as much on roads as it does on public transport.

So marked is this policy that the Greens have taken to talking about Fianna Fáil/NRA, emphasising the dominance of the National Roads Authority in Government thinking.

Labour and Sinn Féin, too, have sounded warning notes about the traffic chaos already in west Dublin and the dangers that this might be exacerbated by the Adamstown development, especially in its initial phases.

But Fine Gael seems to be in tune with the idea of public-private partnerships in transport and road infrastructure, which protects the government's flank to some considerable extent.

Of course, for the floating voter, the high theory involved in many of the arguments is irrelevant. They want to see a better way of tackling the problems they face now, and provided it is put forward in a coherent way, I think they will give the new approach the benefit of the doubt.

In a similar way, for example, lobby groups during the week picketed the Dáil demanding that the M3 go ahead (presumably at whatever cost to the Tara valley) because the traffic crises in towns like Navan, Dunshaughlin and Dunboyne are unbearable.

This is why I think that Adamstown is so important. Of course, Adamstown will not have come on stream to any significant extent by the time of the next general election, but the promise of better things to come will make a big impact on voters. The task facing the Government is to keep up the momentum of such developments, and here the roles of environment minister Dick Roche and transport minister Martin Cullen are pivotal.

But this brings us back to Cullen, and whether or not he can ride the storm of criticism currently bearing down on him. Bertie certainly can't wait with a lame duck minister in such a vital position, as the opposition regroup to pick holes in the Strategic Development Zone concept and sow doubts in the minds of the floating voters.

Eoin Ó Murchú is the Eagraí Polaitiochta of Raidió na Gaeltachta. He is writing here in a personal capacity.