But one of the key reasons for Ireland's woeful record on carbon emissions is our car dependency and the concern is that the kind of radical action required to address that is too politically risky for any government to take on. The Labour document speaks of the need to "encourage clustered rural and urban development through proactive planning for communities". But when pressed further, Gilmore emphasised that the party was "not seeking to ban one-off housing", saying each application needed to be judged on its own merits.

For political reasons, every political party - with the probable exception of the Greens, whose support is largely urban - has to maintain this line. If they said otherwise, it would be seized upon by their rivals and used against them in rural constituencies.

But the reality is that car-dependent, one-off housing doesn't exist in virtually any other European country and if we are serious about meeting our requirements under Kyoto, this issue will have to be addressed head on.

As will other issues. To limit the current trend of urban sprawl, it is vital that the current over-concentration of the population in Dublin is reversed. And the way to do that is not to decentralise civil servants or have a national spatial strategy with a plethora of gateways/hubs.

What's needed is a move away from the politically motivated, scatter-gun approach that has existed for decades, to concentrate investment and development on three or four major urban centres, giving those cities the economies of scale to create a real alternative to Dublin. It's not rocket science. It happens all across Europe. Yet, in all of the calls for better trains and public transport, a basic point is lost: good public transport requires high-density development and concentration of population.

It's hard to see any government having the cojones to take these tough decisions because they are likely to prove deeply unpopular with a section of the electorate - the common good again being sacrificed. The other opposition parties have resisted the Green Party's eminently sensible proposal for an all-party consensus on reducing carbon targets, with Pat Rabbitte making the point last week that this option would let the government off the hook, given that it had 10 years to do something about the situation. Fair enough, given that the election is in the offing. But after the election, there is no reason why this can't happen. Our traditional adversarial politics can not tackle this challenge. We need a radical all-party approach.

Somewhere over the Rainbow. . .

DID they know something we didn't? We stumbled across this photograph of the two Rainbow warriors back in December 1994, when both had become ministers in the new Fine Gael-Labour-Democratic Left government.

The two Mayo men appeared as comfortable in each other's company then as they do now - although the dodgy ties and doublebreasted suits have, mercifully, been abandoned.

RENOWNED US pollster Frank Luntz returns to our TV screens tonight with the third and final focus group special for RT�'s 'The Week in Politics'. With the general election just weeks away, the main political parties will be watching closely to see how undecided voters in Boyle, Co Roscommon feel about what the various parties have to offer. The programme is at 10.35pm on RT� One.

Condom prices can't be cut - Cowen FOR the second time in less than six months, finance minister Brian Cowen has seen fit to have a go at the 'inflated' prices being charged for condoms.

Responding to a question before the Easter break from the Green Party's Ciaran Cuffe on whether he could reduce the VAT charged on condoms in order to encourage their use, Cowen said EU-wide VAT laws would prevent him from doing so.

The reduced rate of 13.5% applies to condoms and Cowen said he can't cut it any further.

"In any event, if there was a reduction in the rate of VAT applying to condoms, I am not convinced, given the mark-up in the sector, that any rate reduction would necessarily be fully reflected in retail prices for condoms, " said Cowen.