Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The national spatial strategy, Mr. Moran may recall, involved a call for public submissions, and individuals, local authorities, auctioneers or anybody else could make one. Then it was prepared, as I understand it, by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government with input from spatial planners from Denmark or other such expertise that was procured by the State at the time. I ask the Chair for a little latitude here. The strategy stated that towns such as Sligo, for example, would have to prepare an infrastructure for a population of 100,000 by 2020 and, obviously, that was mirrored in other towns, villages and cities throughout the country. To what extent was this analysis wrong? Why was it wrong? To what extent did it fuel the policy agenda of the day that led to the property boom?