Acceleration into sprawl : causes and potential policy responses

Abstract

The continuing pace of economic growth in Ireland is giving rise to debates on national spatial planning and economic development policy.It is clear that the need to shift policy priorities towards sustaining economic development in the longer term while maintaining economic growth is a difficult process.Lower rates of economic growth put lesser pressures on the environment and planning processes and therefore the planning, regulatory and legal systems have been unprepared for the impacts of a major surge in all forms of development activity.The absence of the implementation of a sustainable development strategy puts at risk the environment and the benefits of economic development in the 1990s.