Experts warn of population congestion

DUBLIN’S population is heading for two million but anyone hoping to escape the crowded city for a rural idyll may get a lot less than they bargained for.

Experts have warned of problems brewing with the capital getting more congested while rural Ireland risks becoming one big employment blackspot.

Professor Jim Walsh of NUI Maynooth told an Environmental Protection Agency conference yesterday that if trends continued, the forecast for the rural economy, society and environment by the year 2025 would be “dismal”.