I`m afraid that this "Shadow Authority" business has the ring of collision avoidance about it.
I very much fear that what we are looking at is the "back of a cigarette box" response to our Public Transport problems.
I very much agree with and support the Transport for London regulatory model.
However,it remains a VERY expensive ethos to perpetrate and maintain.
Even its own commissioner Peter Hendy recently issued a stark warning to other UK cities eyeing up the successful results of TfL`s public transport programmes.
Mr Hendy basically warned AGAINST attempting to do a TfL on the cheap as the results would virtually guarantee failure and an actual worsenening of traffic and transport conditions.
This "Shadow Authority" lark has the smell of sulphur about it.....a cheap and cheerful Irish solution to an Irish problem.
I would contend that on a relative basis Dublin is a far more difficult scenario to respond to than London was.
The entire issue of funding for example remains well up in the air.
The TfL and indeed the entire UK public service issue remains inexorably tied in with LOCALLY Raised taxation either in the form of Community Charge and/or Domestic Rates neither of which exist in the Republic.
The issue of WHO pays has never been addressed in our context and quite frankly I do not see any sign of it having even been considered in the context of our "Shadow" Authority.
Still...It was at least two days of Positive Puff PR before the cold water appeared.....
