Ghost estates - Taxpayer to pay the price

ANYONE who has driven through rural Ireland lately will be aghast at the proliferation of ‘ghost’ housing estates, vacant offices and empty shops.

Unwanted monuments to unbridled greed, they are the legacy of out-of-control development, scatter-gun planning and gross government mismanagement.

According to an official report, a quarter of the housing estates that mushroomed across the landscape overnight now pose serious health hazards, including the threat from raw sewage and water contamination. In many estates, houses are open to the weather while roads lie unfinished and dangerous.