Eileen Flynn posed a bombshell of a question in Leinster House last summer.

The Independent Senator and Travellers’ rights activist was questioning representatives of business lobby group Ibec at a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Infrastructure and the National Development Plan about their report, entitled Our Infrastructure Ambition for a Competitive, Productive and Resilient Economy.

Zooming in on the proposition that the planning system should favour the common good over individual rights, she wondered: “Who decided what the common good is?”

The common good tends to augment the uncommonly privileged, nobody replied.

Outside Leinster House’s sash windows, a parade of politicians’ parked cars flashed sunbeams across the lawn at their €335,000 bike shelter, installed courtesy of the public. Beyond the gates, tourists staying at nearby five-star hotels strolled in the shade of Merrion Square’s sycamores and horse chestnuts. Visiting Martians would have been impressed by the opulent tapestry. Visiting Dubliners might have thought they had landed on Mars.

For most people, reality is a constant battle with polluting traffic jams, undependable bus timetables, footpaths cluttered with unnecessary obstacles and queues for GP and mental health appointments. Our masters of the universe are seldom spotted trudging to work in the rain, waiting for a bed in a hospital or a domestic violence refuge, residing beside derelict buildings or on streets festooned with menacing anti-immigration flags.

Back in the committee room, the business delegates were arguing that adequate public infrastructure is essential........

© The Irish Times