Dr. Conor O'Toole:

The population trends are often the most predictable in economics. It is often difficult to find series that you can rely on to forecast predictably but population is one of the more stable factors. We know that out to 2040 we are going to have another million persons living in Ireland. After that, we will have further population growth following that. We need to start thinking long term in all of our planning, not just on the housing side but in education and healthcare provision, transport infrastructure and decarbonisation of the electricity grid needed to run all of that system. The longer we can think of our planning structure as these longer-term investments is a good thing.