From his place of business opposite the makeshift Bus Éireann stop on Market Square in Navan, Barry Sheridan has a perfect vantage point to see Dublin commuters come and go.

The owner of the Wine Buff store used to count himself among their number.

During an earlier career in corporate marketing, Sheridan spent "years getting buses up to Dublin".

He calculates he lost a week of his life a year making what was at the time a gruelling four-hour round trip. Bus services have improved since then, he acknowledges, and the recent opening of the M3 motorway has taken some of the pressure off for those who still commute.

But the town has been "crying out" for a rail link to the capital for more than a decade, he says.

"I understand that infrastructure in Dublin is very important. But the local economy here could benefit, and a lot of local people too from the extra jobs it would bring," he says. "It also has the potential to bring more people to the town. From a tourist perspective, Navan and the Boyne valley are huge attractions and being able to get here easily by train would be a big advantage."

Yet there was no mention of funding for the proposed Navan to Dublin rail link in the government's revised capital spending programme, launched last week. Instead, the programme prioritised a number of Dublin-based projects such as the Metro North, the Dart interconnector and DIT's move to Grangegorman.

Speaking at the unveiling of the plan, Taoiseach Brian Cowen claimed it was "exactly the type of stimulus" needed for economic recovery, and could deliver some 270,000 much-needed jobs.

Others were not so sure, pointing out that what the government announced was actually a major cut in capital spending, repackaged to focus on the 'good news' aspects arising out of what remains.

At €39bn, the revised programme is €36bn less than the previous National Development Plan for 2007-2013.

Meanwhile, other key goals – such as the completion of the western rail corridor north of Galway, and several planned extensions to the Luas, along with the Navan-Dublin rail link – are no longer seen as priority projects for the government.

But Navan is no ordinary town. One of its local TDs is transport minister Noel Dempsey, who has staked much of his reputation on delivering a Dublin-Navan rail link.

During the 2007 election campaign in the Meath West constituency, he even used enormous billboards with a picture of himself beside a train and the slogan "Others talk, Dempsey delivers", to underline his support for the project.

Nevertheless, Dempsey raised more than a few eyebrows when he insisted last week that a train service will run between Dublin and Navan by 2016.

Asked if major projects outside Dublin had been put on hold following the government's announcement of its revised plan, he said construction on the railway link would go ahead once planning permission was granted.

It has an estimated cost of some €580m, and is due to be built in two phases.

While work is well underway on the first of these phases, from Clonsilla to Pace, north of Dunboyne, the revised capital programme did not provide funding for the second phase of the project, linking Dunboyne with Navan.

Rail corridor 'not on hold'

"Western rail corridor phase two is not put on the long finger. Navan rail line [is] not put on the long finger despite reports to the contrary... They are not on hold," Dempsey said, barely hiding his irritation.

"The next stage for the Navan rail line is that they submit their planning permission, their railway order. I'm assured by CIÉ that it will be lodged in the first half of next year. I'm not sure how long it will take to get through the planning stage [but] once it gets through the planning process construction will start immediately."

Standing at the gates of a derelict warehouse earmarked as the site of the proposed new train station on Trim road, Cllr Joe Reilly notes that the rail link is supposed to be the heart of the "new town" of Navan.

A local Sinn Féin councillor who recently completed his term as mayor of Navan, he says he would like to believe Dempsey's claims that it will go ahead.

Navan is now officially the fourth largest town in the state, Reilly says, with a population of around 30,000 and 10,000 more in its hinterland.

He acknowledges the planned rail link was conceived during different economic times, but argues that the project should continue to be a priority.

"This climate will not last forever. If you are going to plan for a large commuter town, then this is the time to be putting in infrastructure, particularly when costs are down across the board," he says. "I thought that even with the cutbacks, as minister for transport he could secure it... We're not even mentioned in the revised plan, so where will the money for it come from? Did he fight for this project at cabinet level?"

Reilly believes Dempsey's comments last week may simply have been a rearguard action by a politician who can continue to campaign on the delivery of the rail link, in the full knowledge that he is unlikely to be in a position to deliver on it as minister in 2016.

From a local constituency perspective, this is infinitely preferable to acknowledging he has lost the fight for it to be delivered under the government's revised capital programme.

"If the polls are to be believed then he won't be minister in 2016. It is horizon politics, when you get to the horizon it moves."

Others have also begun to seriously question some of the other choices which last week's plans prioritised for investment.

For example, the economic rationale for Metro North – which had an estimated price tag of €4.58bn in 2005, making it the most expensive public transport project in the state's history – is far from clear.

Already, its sister project, Metro West, has been unceremoniously sidelined. So the stand-alone 18km northern line will run from the sparsely populated Belinstown, north of Swords, underground through Dublin Airport and then via Ballymun, Dublin City University, the Mater hospital, Parnell Square and O'Connell Bridge, before terminating at St Stephen's Green.

Yet to date no cost-benefit analysis of Metro North has ever been published, and critics note it was conceived by its political masters during a time of economic boom that has long since ended.

Crucially, it also remains unclear whether the significant population growth – and hence customer base – which the chosen route is predicated upon will ever manifest itself at a time of net emigration.

Separately, scaled-down plans for the new Thornton Hall 'super prison' in north Co Dublin have been criticised as inadequate after they were unveiled by justice minister Dermot Ahern last week. Ahern said there would ultimately be 1,400 cells with a capacity for 2,200 prisoners at the long-awaited replacement for Mountjoy prison.

But he revealed the new prison is now due to be constructed in three stages instead of all at the one time.

This will see the first two blocks being built by 2014, with the aim of providing 400 'high-grade' cells suitable to accommodate up to 700 prisoners.

Labour Party justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte labelled the revelation that no cells would be available until at least 2014 as confirmation that Thornton Hall is "one of the most expensive, misconceived and poorly planned [projects] in the history of the state".

"We know that a total of €42.24m of taxpayers' money has been spent on this project to date, including the astronomical €29.9m approved by [former justice minister] Michael McDowell for the purchase of the site," he said.

"All the fine design and promises are gone out the window as Mr Ahern now reverts to the traditional doubling-up in cells at a location that was never suitable for a prison."

Dempsey ignoring promises

Meanwhile, Fine Gael believes the revised capital programme does not go far enough. Last week, it called for further cuts to current expenditure in order to finance increased investment on infrastructure.

Add to this the fallout from other delayed (and costly) projects, such as the deferral of decentralisation plans in places such as Claremorris, Charlestown and Drogheda, and it is difficult to see how the government can sell its renewed programme to an increasingly sceptical public.

Back at the Market Square bus stop on a muggy midweek afternoon, Hilary Lee is waiting with her family to catch a bus to Dublin. A native of Kells who is now based in Galway, she returns to Navan regularly to visit family and friends.

She does not have a driving licence, and used to get a bus from Athlone to Navan. But cutbacks mean this service has been stopped, so she is forced to travel first to Dublin, before heading out on the bus to Navan. She says a Dublin to Navan rail link would make a real difference.

"It would help a lot of people, especially those who are not driving. Going from here to Dublin would be a lot quicker," she says. "That man [Dempsey] gave promises to a lot of people that he would help them out but at the end of the day he is just ignoring them."

Nearby, 18-year-old Aoife Strahan is listening to music on her headphones as she waits to catch the bus to Dublin too.

Strahan, who completed her Leaving Certificate at the Institute of Education in Dublin, hopes to study medicine when she gets her results next month. She intends to move to Dublin when she goes to college, as she finds the bus service from both Navan and her home in Dunshaughlin hugely unreliable.

She even missed her Irish oral exam earlier this year because the bus did not come on time.

"I just can't deal with commuting. A lot of people who live here are commuters. I just think not having the rail link makes it so difficult to go places. I've travelled around Europe and it is just so much more efficient, and everything is on time," she says. "Whereas in Navan, if you don't have a car, you are in trouble."

Government's revised capital programme: Some key winners and losers

Winners

Metro North
DIT's move to Grangegorman
Dart Underground
Housing regeneration projects in Limerick and Ballymun

Losers

Navan-Dublin railway
Thornton Hall prison (scaled down)
Western Rail Corridor
Outstanding decentralisation projects
Cuts in health, social housing, road building,
Luas extensions