Legacy costs of lax planning and cheap credit
The report found “reckless overzoning” during the end of the Celtic Tiger boom provided an easy route to cheap credit, facilitated widespread property speculation and lead to the collapse.
The review of planning across 34 city and county councils highlighted the scale of the problem and found in 2008 there were 42,000 hectares zoned for residential purposes — enough for 4m extra people on top of the 4.4m population at that time.
